3-year-old boy dies after falling from a 29th-floor balcony

• A 3-year-old boy died after falling from a 29th floor balcony in New York City.
• The boy apparently climbed out of a window and fell to his death.
• Neighbors realized what had happened when they heard the mother’s heartbreaking screams.

Tragic death shocks a community. A 3-year-old boy died on Saturday, July 2, when he fell from the balcony on the 29th floor of an apartment building located in New York City, police reported based on a preliminary investigation.

The police found the injured boy on a third-floor scaffolding after responding to numerous 911 calls at 11:09 a.m. on Saturday. The boy was immediately taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead due to the powerful impact suffered by his small body, the AP reported.

Painful tragedy: 3-year-old boy dies after falling from the 29th floor

«We believe the child went out a window, but we are still investigating how exactly this happened,» a police spokesman told The Associated Press. The apartment is located in the Taino Towers residential complex in Harlem, the official added.

New York City law requires owners of buildings with three or more apartments to install window guards if a child 10 years of age or younger lives there or if a tenant or occupant requests it. It is unclear if window guards were installed in this particular apartment, the AP’s report stated.

“I looked and the baby was in the scaffolding”

The police spokesman said the boy’s death is under «active investigation» and that officers are speaking with two individuals who were in the apartment at the time the boy fell from the balcony. The AP report did not specify whether they were the victim’s parents.

Nidia Cordero, who lives on the 34th floor of the building, the New York Post that suddenly she heard someone, who she thinks was the little boy’s mother, screaming. «I looked and the baby was in the scaffolding,» she said. Richard Linares told the New York Daily News that he was outside the apartment complex when the boy fell.

Shock over deadly incident

“We heard a big noise. My son, who was here, ran to the front. He ran up the scaffolding to find the baby. The baby was still crying and breathing when he arrived,» said Richard Linares. He later added: «When the paramedics put him down, they had a towel over his face.»

The New York Post reported that neighbors described hearing what sounded like a «boom» and a «thump» as the boy fell and landed on the scaffolding. “It sounded like something very heavy. It sounded like construction,” said Tangerine Castro, who lives on the 23rd floor.

«My baby, my baby,» the mother cried hysterically

“We just started looking and everybody started coming out of their building. Everybody that were upstairs that could see down, saw the little boy with the yellow shirt. He was flat in the scaffolding, «explained Tangerine Castro. The boy’s mother, who was outside at the time, started screaming, according to witnesses cited by the Post.

“She was sitting on the ground in her socks. She was screaming, ‘My baby, my baby, he is up there,’” said 25-year-old neighbor Alexander Townsend. He added that the boy’s father «ran down the stairs crying» and tried to get on the scaffolding to look for his son, but he couldn’t. Preliminary reports indicate the boy’s fall was accidental, police said.