According to a report from Fox 61, Ward was at a convenience store in the New London, Conn., area when he noticed the abandoned child in a stroller in the travel lane on Bank Street at approximately 7 p.m. on Monday evening.
“I said that’s definitely a baby stroller, so I ran over, kind of came around the front, saw there was a child in it. She was unresponsive,” Ward said.
Ward pushed the stroller into the New London Department Firehouse, where it was determined shortly thereafter that the child was simply asleep. The girl was taken to Lawrence and Memorial Hospital for precautionary measures.
Witnesses told police that the girl’s father, 25-year-old Matthew Simpson, had been seen drinking most of the day. An intoxicated Simpson was reportedly found at 7:30 p.m. unconscious in the bathroom at Union Station on Water Street. Simpson was charged with risk of injury to a minor and held in lieu of $99,000 bail. He was arraigned on Tuesday and ordered to seek drug counseling and not to contact the mother or child, according to the report.
Ward, 28, is set to return to action against Saad Awad at Bellator 163 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., on Nov. 4. The Waterford, Conn., native is 9-4 over the course of his promotional tenure, with all of his triumphs coming within two rounds.