2-Year-Old Boy Falls From Third-Story Window On Lower East Side
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A toddler is hospitalized after falling out of a third-story apartment window on the Lower East Side.
Two-year-old Jayvin Cruz, who is reportedly autistic, fell from the window at 177 Chrystie Street around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, 1010 WINS' Juliet Papa reported.
Witness Earl Boyd said he was sitting on a park bench across the street when he heard a loud "bang." He said he thought it was a car accident, but then he saw the child and heard him crying.
"I was scared," Boyd said. "I didn't know who cried the most, me or the baby. But then I realized the baby's crying. That means the baby's alive, and then I was better. I felt better after that. But the baby cried, and it kept crying the whole time."
The child's parents were inside the apartment at the time of the incident. The boy went out the window when his mother turned her back on him to clean up potato chips he spilled on the floor, sources told CBS 2.
"(I was) going to sleep," said the toddler's grandmother, who was also home at the time. "When I open my eyes, everybody's running and screaming, 'What happened?"
The boy was taken to Bellevue Hospital with only minor injuries, Jiang reported. Through his apartment door, the boy's father told CBS 2's Dick Brennan the toddler is "fine."
The boy landed on a flexible metallic lid of a shed that houses garbage cans, breaking his fall.
Neighbors, especially parents, want to know why there were no window guards.
"It's something I don't want to think about," said neighbor Alex Miao.
The boy's grandmother said the landlord was supposed to put a guard in the window, but never did.
City housing officials said installing window guards is a shared responsibility for owners and tenants.
Tenants are required to let landlords know if there's a child in the house 10 years of age or younger. If there is, the landlord is required to install a guard, Jiang reported.
City housing officials said there have been no complaints filed for missing window guards in the building and no open violations for them either.
The Health Department is investigating the case.
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