Boy's fatal fall in Wynnefield Heights was an accident, police say

WYNNEFIELD HEIGHTS (WPVI) -- Philadelphia police say no charges will be filed against the parents of a 4-year-old boy who fell to his death from an apartment building in Wynnefield Heights.

Investigators have concluded Tuesday's incident was a tragic accident and that his parents had done all they could to protect the 4-year-old autistic boy from danger.

They say Yasmin Hamdy suffered from a form of brain cancer that impaired his judgment, and that the boy had a habit of roaming unsupervised.

It was 6:30 p.m. Tuesday when the boy fell 7 stories from a balcony at the Imperial Towers apartment complex on the 3800 block of Conshohocken Avenue.

The boy's mother told police she was distracted in another room with a second child, only three days old.

The boy's father was not home at the time.

Police say the went through the window screen in apartment 714 and managed to climb over the four foot railing before falling 70-feet to his death.

He was brought to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for treatment of various medical issues where he was pronounced dead.

The autopsy report said all of his injuries are consistent with that 7-story fall.

Both parents stopped talking to police when a local lawyer retained by the Saudi embassy in Washington arrived Tuesday night.

The parents are from Saudi Arabia and speak no English.

Police say the child was known to roam away from the apartment unsupervised and had been described by police to be "a handful for his parents."

A friend of the grieving family says it was all a tragic accident because the parents opened the windows, leaving the screens exposed.

"He did not understand what is dangerous or what is not," neighbor Adel Najjar said.