Girl, 5, killed in four-story fall
Brookline neighborhood shaken by tragedy
A 5-year-old girl died last night after plummeting from the fourth floor of a Brookline apartment building, landing on a concrete patio below in an apparent accident that stunned the neighborhood.
Passers-by put their hands to their mouths in shock as the word spread of what had happened.
“Oh my God. That poor girl,” said one woman, on the sidewalk outside the building with her own children.
The girl lived inside the building but was visiting friends and not in her apartment when she fell, Brookline police Lt. Philip Harrington said.
Harrington said police responded to a 911 call about 3:15 p.m. and found the girl lying on the patio outside the building. A large window screen was also laying nearby and was later taken by police and placed in the back of a cruiser. He said the girl was taken to Boston Children’s Hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Norfolk District Attorney’s office said the little girl later died. The exact cause and manner of the girl’s death will be determined by the state medical examiner’s office.
Her name was not immediately released.
State police detectives from the Norfolk District Attorney’s office were on scene investigating.
A man who lives on the fourth floor said police briefly spoke to him following the fall.
“They didn’t tell me it was a girl. I can’t believe it,” he said. But he added, “I’ve seen her before. This is so sad.”
He pointed out the apartment where he believes the girl fell from. The three adults in that apartment declined to comment.
“I’m sorry,” said a man who came to the door. “We are not ready to talk at this time.”
The awareness of what had happened chilled parents nearby.
“You always realize that it is a possibility, and you do all the safety stuff they tell you to do at home, but it doesn’t hit home until you hear about something like this,” said Scott Barnes, a parent who lives nearby.
Authorities advise parents and landlords to ensure that any screened windows have safety bars in homes with small children.
Saturday, a 5-year-old Quincy boy who fell out a window and plummeted seven stories miraculously survived when a tree broke his fall, authorities said.
Last month, a 2-year-old Chelsea boy suffered only cuts and bruises after he fell through a second-floor window screen and landed on his beloved stuffed cow.