A 4-year-old boy plunged 23 stories to his death from a Bronx apartment building last night in a horrific fall that left family members and neighbors reeling.
The child’s mother was taking a shower when the boy apparently pushed a chair up to the railing of their Co-Op city balcony — which the city had ordered them not to use — and tumbled over the side, police sources said.
After the nightmare plunge, the mom rushed to the spot where the boy landed, and collapsed.
“She saw her son’s skull cracked open and bleeding,” said neighbor Bridgette Wilson, 30. “She screamed and fainted.”
Little Malachi Johnson was wearing blue-jean overalls when he fell just after 7 p.m. from his family’s apartment on DeKruif Place.
A witness said that the tot was spotted playing on the terrace before the tragic fall.
“He was looking over and then fell,” the witness told Fox 5 News.
Jeff Mayby, 44, said he was coming home from a pizza shop when the horror unfolded.
“I heard a loud thump,” he said. “I heard a group of women screaming.”
When he got closer, “I saw a child face down on the ground, with blood all over the ground,” Mayby added.
“No parents were looking out any window.”
Malachi’s mother was hospitalized after she passed out from the sight of her dying son, sources said.
“She’s a very nice person, keeps to herself, goes to work every day, like the rest of us, and keeps her son and daughter very well-dressed and clean,” said Melviene Gilliard, a neighbor.
The Department of Buildings had issued an order in May barring the use of all the balconies in the building because of concerns about their safety.
The property managers were supposed to enforce the order, but it’s not clear what was required of them.
Gilliard said building management had been sealing off residents’ terrace doors so repairs could be performed, but they had not yet gotten to the tragic family’s unit.
Last night, inspectors said Johnson’s balcony was structurally sound.
Additional reporting by Matthew Nestel and Larry Celona