Neighbor catches girl tossed from window at burning apartment building

ST. LOUIS — A neighbor caught a 3-year-old girl tossed by her mother from a second-floor window Monday morning as flames spread inside an apartment building in the Wells-goodfellow neighborhood.

Arnez Merriweather, 30, caught the girl as he stood outside the Hillvale Apartments on Selber Court, at about 9:30 a.m. Monday. Merriweather lives at the complex in a building next to the one on fire.

Black smoke billowing from the eight-unit building was so thick that Merriweather and others couldn’t get into a hallway to enter the complex.

“We (were) yelling at the windows to tell people to get out, and a woman came to the window and tossed the baby,” Merriweather said.

Merriweather calls her a baby, but the girl is actually 3 years old. The girl, Tayliah Williams, and her mother, Latisha Williams, were taken away by ambulance for treatment of minor injuries. An older woman also was taken to a hospital for evaluation.

Five people in all were rescued. The other two residents who were rescued declined treatment, officials said. All were rescued before firefighters arrived.

Once the blaze was extinguished, Merriweather spent several minutes at the scene talking with a fire official about what had happened.