NEED TO KNOW
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A 2-year-old boy has died after police say he fell from a 20th-floor window of a New Jersey apartment building
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Police officers were called to a high-rise apartment building, the Elizabeth Towers in Newark, at around 7 a.m. local time on Saturday, Nov. 15
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The boy was pronounced dead at the scene
A toddler in New Jersey has died after police say he fell from a 20th-floor window of an apartment building.
According to NBC New York, WABC and CBS New York, officers were called to a high-rise apartment building, the Elizabeth Towers in Newark, at around 7 a.m. local time on Saturday, Nov. 15.
Newark and Essex County officials said that a 2-year-old boy was pronounced dead at the scene, per the outlets.
Video footage from news stations showed crews covering up an open window on the building’s 20th floor.
The boy’s identity has not been made public, but neighbors who spoke with NBC New York said that his family was from Ghana.
One neighbor described the child as “my little bro.”
“I really love him. I’m really sad. My heart is broken,” the neighbor told NBC New York. “A couple of days [ago], I was just playing right here with him.”
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“This building is old, and it needs to be renovated,” the person added.
Tenants who spoke to CBS New York said that many families in the building have children, and some units have installed security bars over the windows to help prevent tragedies such as this one.
“This is really tough,” said neighbor Paul Ankrah. “The window is big, it’s really big.”
According to Ankrah, Elizabeth Towers installed window guards in his apartment after he told the property’s manager that he had a child.
“My windows are safe. Before I moved in, I made sure they put up the barricade,” he said.
Another resident, Annie Richardson, claimed that the building is seemingly understaffed.
“They don’t have enough help…to get things going to fix problems,” she told NBC New York.
Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens II and Newark Public Safety Director Emanuel Miranda told NJ.com that the incident remained under investigation as of noon on Saturday.
“We need safety,” tenant Belinda Owsumenseh added to CBS New York, “because there’s a lot of people here that got little kids, and definitely nobody wants that to happen again.”
Anyone with information regarding Saturday’s incident is asked to contact the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office Tips Line at 1-877-TIPS-4EC or 1-877-847-7432, per the outlets.
Read the original article on People
