The parents of a boy who plunged to his death from a tower block reportedly told police they thought he was playing safely.
Three-year-old Jayce Garcia died on Saturday morning after falling from the 29th floor balcony of the Taino Towers complex in Harlem, New York.
Reports say his mum and dad told officers that they were talking in the bedroom and believed the tot was safely playing in the living room.
When the couple realised they couldn't hear their son anymore they are said to have started searching the flat until the mum, 30, noticed the mesh mosquito netting on the balcony had become loose.
She is reported to have looked down from the balcony and seen her son's body on scaffolding on the third floor of the next door building.
Horrified witnesses told the New York Post they heard the child's panicked mum cry "my baby, my baby" and saw his devastated dad "run downstairs crying".
The boy was rushed to hospital but pronounced dead there, around 20 minutes after the fall.
Police believe the tot's death was accidental, according to law enforcement sources.
NYPD investigators believe the boy walked onto the balcony while his parents were in the other room, climbed over a chair to look over and fell.
Neighbours said that tenants often keep their balcony doors open because the air conditioning in the high-rise is regularly out of order.
Police said the boy's dad rang the cops after hearing the mother yelling. They said they were called to the block of flats just after 11am.
Jayce's parents, who were both interviewed by police after the tragedy, had a strained relationship in the past, according to neighbours.
The boy's maternal grandmother, Cherise Young, 49, told The Post that her daughter was "not well at all".
She added that her grandson "was a very happy baby" who had "a normal, loving relationship" with his mother who "loved him very much".
