Father is questioned after baby's fatal fall

Bed was seen near family's window

A 9-month-old boy in Roxbury tumbled out an open apartment window and fell four stories to his death yesterday, leaving a chaotic, tear-strewn scene on the street and a police investigation into the possibility that the baby had been left unsupervised on a bed flush against the window.

Two police officers and two paramedics had already arrived and were attempting to resuscitate the child when his father, Michael Tejada, ran outside, screaming, "Oh, my god! That's my kid," neighbors said.

The baby, wearing only a diaper, was bleeding severely, his body bruised, said Sharmaine Digaetano, 32, who was nearby. "The baby was not moving at all," Digaetano said. "He looked really bad."

Tejada sat on the sidewalk and wept as paramedics lightly palpitated the chest of his son, identified by an uncle as Jordani Rivera. The boy was later pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center. He was the first child to be die after falling from a window in Boston in eight years, officials said.

City inspection records show that a resident in the building, Tynisha Johnson, the 23-year-old mother of a 4-year-old girl, had complained in June about wanting window guards that would prevent a child from falling out but "the landlord told her window guards were not allowed."

Commonwealth Land Trust, which owns the building, said it had not received any requests to install window gaurds and said it allows the devices.

"If a tenant asked about that, of course, that's not a problem," said Ellen Tan, Commonwealth Land Trust's chief executive.

Boston police interviewed Tejada yesterday, trying to determine how his son fell from the window. The investigation was looking into where the father was at the time and whether he was watching the child.

"They're trying to determine . . . all the facts and circumstances that led to this tragic incident," said Elaine Driscoll, a police spokeswoman. No charges have been filed.

Police said the boy's mother, Carmen Rivera, was en route to the Dominican Republic when her son fell at about 10 a.m. Tejada, who did not live at the apartment, was caring for his son while she was away. By noon yesterday, relatives had telephoned Rivera, and she was on her way back to Boston.

"She's devastated," said Rivera's brother, Carlos, who had come to his sister's building on Cunard Street with another sibling yesterday, but was not allowed inside while police investigated. "This moment is very hard for us."

A window screen, the kind commonly used to keep bugs out, was on the sidewalk yesterday, near where Jordani was found. Police were trying to determine whether the screen was in the window when the boy fell. City codes require all housing units on the fourth floor and below to have window screens.

No child safety bars were visible in the window. City codes encourage, but do not require, property owners to install window safety guards in homes with children age 6 and under.

"It's obvious that this building needs safety bars to prevent the type of tragic accidents that just occurred," said the Rev. Ernest Branch, pastor of Sermon on the Mountain Baptist Church in Roxbury, who prayed outside the building yesterday. "Somebody needs to do something about this problem, and somebody needs to be held liable for what happened."

Alison Goodwin, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, said the agency was also investigating the death. The family, which has not had prior contact with social services officials, has two other school-age children, she said.

Perla Soto, 29, who lives in a third-floor unit directly below the one Jordani fell from, said she noticed during a visit Tuesday that an adult-size bed was located directly under the bedroom window. A crib was next to the bed, Soto said.

"I didn't think anything about it then," she said.

Yesterday, Soto was working at her computer in her apartment when Jordani fell. Hearing a commotion, she ran to her window, looked down, and saw the boy lying face up on the sidewalk. She ran upstairs and knocked on Tejada's door but there was no answer, she said. As she headed downstairs, she said, Tejada came out of his apartment.

"I said, 'Michael, your baby fell down,' " Soto said, adding that it appeared Tejada did not realize that his son had fallen. Tejada ran back upstairs, she said, then outside. By then, two Boston police officers working a detail about a block away had arrived, along with two emergency medical technicians, neighbors said.

Later, the EMTs appeared shaken as they answered questions from a police officer.

Boston Inspectional Services last inspected Rivera's unit in August 2007 when it was in between tenants and found no problems, said Dion S. Irish, the agency's assistant commissioner and director of housing.

Tan said the unit had passed an inspection this April, though Irish said there were no records for that date.

Tan said she was not aware of any complaints about conditions in the unit.

"It's just a horrible thing that happened," she said. "We're truly sad beyond words."

Since 1994, following two years in which 39 children fell from windows in Boston, the city has run a campaign called Kids Can't Fly to educate parents about the dangers of open windows and to make window guards available for $24.

The program, according to city officials, has sharply reduced the number of child window falls, from a high of 21 in 1992 to no more than three a year for the last 10 years.

The campaign encourages property owners to talk about window guards with their tenants with young children.

Tan said that Commonwealth Land Trust, a nonprofit that fosters affordable housing in Roxbury, has not made a practice of speaking to tenants about window bars.

"It's not something I've thought about real recently; thankfully, this is not a situation that has come up before," Tan said. "We abide by all the regulations, and we work with [city authorities]. . . . We do what they advise."

Every year nationwide, 12 children under age 10 are killed and 4,000 are injured in falls from windows, according to Erin Christiansen, program director of the Childhood Injury Prevention Program at the Boston Public Health Commission.

"Unprotected windows are a serious injury risk for young children and lack of supervision, as well," Christiansen said.

Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com. Brian Ballou can be reached at bballou@globe.com.