A 4-year-old boy was hospitalized with serious injuries around 11:30 a.m. Sunday after he fell from the fourth floor of an apartment building in Kapolei, paramedics reported.
"I was in my apartment when I heard firefighters and an ambulance come," said Carlos Rodrigues, a 20-year-old who lives in a fourth-floor unit of the apartment complex, called the Villas at Malu‘ohai, in the Villages of Kapolei. "I came down to see what was happening, and all I saw was a little boy on the ground. I believe he was conscious, sounds like he was stable. He was just being lifted up to be taken to the hospital."
This is the second time in less than a week that a child has fallen from an apartment building.
On Monday night a 3-year-old boy was hospitalized in critical condition after falling from a third-floor landing at a Waipahu apartment.
The Villas at Malu‘ohai is a four-story "U"-shaped building with a small inner courtyard.
Rodrigues said he saw the boy lying on the grass in the courtyard.
He added that he lives a few doors down from the boy’s family, a single mother and her two children, a young girl and boy.
"I just see them every now and then," he said. "They’re a good family. It was probably just a bad accident. Things happen and we’re not perfect. But after it happened, I prayed for the kid, hoping he’ll get well."
Other residents said they hadn’t heard anything about the fall, but added that there are many young families living in the building.
"I see kids playing by the window sometimes, but I don’t let my kids," said Anjuli Fernandez, 29, who lives in a first-floor unit with her boyfriend and six kids. "Sometimes my daughter will sit here (on the ledge), but I always scold her. Even on the first floor I worry."
Jordan Espinoza, Fernandez’s boyfriend, said he’s seen kids sitting on the interior ledge of the windows. When the window is open, only a screen separates the child from a fall.
"Maybe the screen just popped out," he said.
Fernandez added that she often sees and hears kids playing in the units because there’s nowhere for them to play at the complex.
"I hardly see kids playing out, so I guess that’s why they play in, and this is what can happen," she said. "That’s why you always gotta watch your kids."
Rodrigues, Fernandez and Espinoza all said they enjoy living in the complex and think it’s safe.
"This was just one of those random accidents," Rodrigues said. "It’s sad, unfortunate. That’s why we pray he’s OK."
