THE BRONX — The city's child protective services and police have taken custody of all the children of a Bronx mother whose 3-month-old baby girl survived a two-story plunge from her apartment window in the Bronx's Edenwald Houses, officials said.
The Administration for Children's services took responsibility for the 3-month-old infant, along with as many as six of her siblings, while police questioned those believed to be responsible, officials and neighbors said.
"The infant and her siblings are now in the care of Children’s Services," an ACS spokeswoman said in a statement.
The little girl, whose name was not immediately released, fell from a window in her family's apartment at East 226th Drive about 8 p.m. Tuesday, police said. She hit an air-conditioning unit on the way down and landed in a grassy courtyard behind the three-story building, police said. The baby was taken to Jacobi Medical Center, where she was in stable condition with a fractured skull, sources said.
The children's mother, who was identified by neighbors as Takeya Dubose, 30, had been sitting on the front stoop with friends when her daughter fell, they said. Police had been looking into the likelihood that the infant's 9-year-old brother threw the baby out of the window, but by Wednesday afternoon the investigation into the boy had been dropped, police said.
Police said they were being interviewing people of interest at the 47th Precinct station house near the complex Wednesday afternoon, police said. No arrests had been made as of Wednesday evening.
A woman who said she was a friend of DuBose, but did not want her name used, said the mother ran around the building and picked up the injured child after the fall.
"When I closed my eyes all I could see was her holding that child," after the fall. "I couldn't even sleep."
The friend said DuBose had seven children, three girls and four boys, and that the tiny baby had been born several weeks premature.
"She fought to be alive. She's three months, premature, and she fell and survived. She must be an angel," she said.
A man who identified himself as Dubose's brother but declined to give his name said he had spoken with DuBose, who told him the baby would be ok.
"Yesterday was the worst day of my life," he said.
With reporting by Alexander Hotz.
