A 9-year-old boy’s death has been ruled accidental after the child plunged 43 floors from a Bronx apartment building, according to police sources. While police say they believe the fall was an accident, questions remain about how the child wound up on the roof and what caused him to fall.
Sidy Fofana came to his uncle’s apartment on the 43rd floor of the River Park Towers in University Heights to get some money to buy Chinese food, according to his family. When he did not return to his own fourth-floor apartment, his parents became worried and began searching. His body was found on a scaffolding outside the building.
Security cameras inside the building do not show the child walking in the direction he would have taken to go to his own apartment. It is unclear whether he simply went out a nearby side door and on to the roof or if something else happened.
The child did not have the $10 he had borrowed on him when his body was recovered, but it is possible that it was in his hand when he fell and was dropped. An autopsy has so far failed to reveal any answers to the mystery.
Negligence—By Whom?
In a case such as this, there may be degrees of negligence on the part of several people that lead ultimately to a child’s death. While a nine-year-old is physically capable of walking from his own apartment to one 40 floors above, it may not be wise to allow a child to do so alone. If the parents were negligent in this case, they could possibly receive criminal charges.
However, it is unlikely that anyone will charge the parents under the circumstances. What is more likely is that the parents will sue the building owner for leaving the door to the roof unlocked so that a curious child could wander out and get hurt. The uncle could feasibly be held responsible to a certain degree if he did not see the child safely back to his own apartment.
Of course, this does not mean that anyone is actually “at fault” for the accident. What it does mean is that it is possible to take several viewpoints of the matter. A personal injury attorney like those at The Fitzgerald Law Firm can help those who have lost loved ones to tragic accidents under the concepts of liability and assess who may be responsible for damages.