Boy, 4, dies after falling 7 stories from Philadelphia balcony

WYNNEFIELD HEIGHTS (WPVI) -- A 4-year-old boy has died after police say he fell seven stories from his parents' Philadelphia apartment balcony.

It happened at the Imperial Apartments on the 3800 block of Conshohocken Avenue in the Wynnefield Heights section of the city.

Police say the parents were home at the time of the incident.

The apartment's security guard tells Action News the mother came to him because she couldn't find her son. Minutes later, they made the gruesome discovery.

"The mother came and said she couldn't find her child. We did the whole perimeter, we found him right over at the end of the parking lot with his face down," the security guard said. "'My baby, my baby,' that's all she kept saying."

A flood of calls for help came just after 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Police tried to revive the young child, before medics arrived and rushed him to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia where he was officially pronounced dead a short time later.

"It appears the child climbed on top of the heater, there's a window above that heater, you can clearly tell the screen is damaged. He somehow falls onto the cement balcony," Philadelphia Police Lt. John Walker said.

What's not clear is how the 4-year-old got over the balcony railing which is too high to climb without help and to narrow to fit through.

"It doesn't appear to be anything he could have stood on, there was tricycle up there, but I don't think because it was a three-wheeler he was able to stand on that and come over," Walker said.

Philadelphia police say the family is from Saudi Arabia and the mother gave birth to a baby just a few days ago.

For the security guard, the tragic discovery is forever seared in his mind.

"I just feel so bad for the parents, knowing your child is missing, then that's how they find him, laying on his face, it's terrible," the guard said.

Police continue to investigate.