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Teen Fatally Falls From Apartment Window In Curtain Hanging Accident
By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 1, 2011
Modified Oct 1, 2011
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family handout
By
Ben Yakas
Published Oct 1, 2011
Modified Oct 1, 2011
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A 14-year-old Bronx boy slipped while hanging curtains in his 5th floor apartment and fell out the window to his death yesterday. Yohan Hernandez was standing on a chair installing curtains when the tragic accident occurred on Townsend Avenue near East 172nd Street in Morris Heights around 4:30 p.m. Witness Orlando Ventura described the distressing scene after the fall: “His stomach was swollen. He was pale. They were pumping him, pumping him, pumping him."
There were no bars on the window; Yohan hit a tree as he fell, and landed in a patch of grass outside the building, just missing a fence. "You can see the curtain hanging in the window. He slipped and fell. There's a branch on the ground that broke his fall and he landed. It was a pretty bad fall," one cop at the scene told the News. Yohan's grandmother was transported to a local hospital in shock. “You don’t just fall out of a window, but he did. He was always a happy baby," said the boy’s aunt, Frenchy Figueroa.
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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