The 5-year-old boy was taken to Harlem Hospital after falling from a third-floor Bronx apartment window, officials said.
BRONX, N.Y. — A witness who heard a sudden thud outside a Bronx apartment building said he ran for help Monday after discovering a 5-year-old boy had fallen from a third-floor window in Morrisania.
The child fell shortly before 11 a.m. near East 167th Street and Washington Avenue and was taken to Harlem Hospital, where officials said he was in stable condition. Early information indicated the boy may have climbed out through a window that did not have bars. Authorities also said a parent was home at the time, though many questions about the circumstances remained unanswered Monday evening.
The incident unfolded in a matter of moments. Jesus Toribo, who lives nearby, said he heard a noise from outside and then opened the door to see what had happened. What he found, he said, left him stunned. The boy was lying on the ground, and Toribo said the child’s scream made clear how serious the situation was. He said he froze at first, worried that touching the boy could cause more harm.
Toribo said instinct took over after that. He ran to the fire station on the corner to get help, then hurried back to the child. He described pacing, checking on the boy and looking repeatedly for responders. “I stayed right there near him,” Toribo said, adding that he was shaking and overwhelmed while waiting for firefighters to arrive. His account offered the clearest public description Monday of the moments immediately after the fall.
Officials did not release a detailed timeline beyond saying the fall happened just before 11 a.m. They also did not describe the child’s injuries beyond saying he was stable after being taken to the hospital. It remained unclear how long the child had been near the window before the fall, whether another adult or child was in the room, or what safety measures, if any, were in place at the window itself.
Those unanswered questions are likely to shape the next phase of the investigation. In cases involving falls from apartment windows, authorities often try to determine the child’s path to the window, the exact height of the fall, and whether building safety measures were missing or failed. By Monday, however, officials had released only limited facts and did not say whether any agency beyond first responders had inspected the apartment.
The address, near one of Morrisania’s active intersections, drew immediate neighborhood attention. In crowded residential corridors, emergencies like this spread quickly as neighbors hear sirens, gather outside and search for updates. Even so, the public account of this case remained narrow, with one witness, a hospital destination and a brief description from officials forming most of what was known by late Monday.
Police and other authorities had not announced arrests or charges, and there was no public statement suggesting intentional harm. The case remained centered on a young child’s recovery and the effort to understand how he got through the window. The mention that a parent was home at the time added another important fact, but officials did not explain where in the apartment that parent was when the fall happened.
As of Monday night, the clearest sign of relief in the case was the boy’s condition. He survived the fall and reached the hospital alive, giving investigators and family members time to piece together what happened. Further updates are expected to depend on the child’s recovery and on whether authorities decide to release more details about the apartment, the family or the ongoing review.
Author note: Last updated April 7, 2026.