Sheriff: Furniture incident killed Pompano Beach girl, 2

POMPANO BEACH — A 2-yearold girl is dead and Broward Sheriff ’s Office investigators say it was furniture that killed her.

“An incident involving a piece of furniture led to a medical emergency for a child,” said sheriff ’s spokesman Carey Codd. “The child was pronounced deceased.”

Neighbor Robert Aratari, 60, was dozing in front of the TV about 8 a.m. Friday when he was startled by screaming from across the street.

“I heard the most godawful, guttural scream,” he said. “You knew something was terribly, terribly wrong.”

He went outside and saw several Broward Sheriff ’s patrol cars and deputies around the house in the

5200 block of Northeast 14th Terrace in Pompano Beach.

They were trying to prevent the child’s young mother and grandmother from going back inside.

“The grandmother showed up and she wanted to go inside and said, ‘Please let me see my granddaughter one more time,’ and they wouldn’t let her in,” Arartari said.

Investigators did not disclose the names of the toddler and her family. The child’s mother was seen outside hugging her 13-year-old brother. Aratari said he and his wife were tearing up.

“They’re good people,” he said. “They just had a party, what I think was a birthday party for her in the front yard.”

Detectives were interviewing several adults who were in the home when the incident happened. The Broward Medical Examiner’s Office will conduct an autopsy to determine the official cause of death, Codd said.

“It’s just shocking to see a child playing one day and the next day you wake up to this,” Aratari said.

According to a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission report in

2019, there were 459 deaths involving children 17 and younger between

2000 and 2018 related to furniture, TVs and appliances tipping over. Children 5 and younger accounted for 93% of those deaths.