The distraught New York mom of a 3-year-old who fell to his death from a Harlem high-rise told cops she thought her son was safely playing in the next room — till she saw the netting on the balcony flapping in the wind, sources say.
The mom and the toddler’s father had been talking in the bedroom thinking their 3-year-old son Jayce Garcia was fine playing in the living room, the parents told cops, according to law-enforcement sources. When the pair realized they weren’t hearing their son anymore, she went to look for him — and saw the loose mesh mosquito netting, sources said.
When the mom then looked down from the 29th-floor balcony, she saw Jayce’s tiny body on the scaffolding on the fifth floor below, sources said. Neighbors have told The Post that they could hear the mom screaming, “My baby!”
The toddler was rushed to Harlem Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police believe the boy’s death was just a tragic accident, sources said.
Meanwhile, the baby’s parents had a strained relationship, sources and neighbors said.
Records show that the baby’s mother has an open case on a charge of endangering the welfare of a child dating to November, while the 24-year-old father has been named nine times in domestic-violence reports — seven of them as the victim.
“[The boy’s mom is] not doing well at all,” the baby’s maternal grandmother, Cherise Young, said on Sunday. “She’s not well at all.”
Young, who lives in Connecticut, said Jayce “was a very happy baby.
“His mother loved him very much,” she said. “It was a normal, loving relationship.”
Young said she only met Jayce’s dad “a couple of times.”
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