Man arrested after woman and 2 children plunge from balcony

Witnesses described a “horrific,” “devastating” scene: A woman, a toddler and an infant lying in front of a Scarborough highrise after plunging from a fourth-floor apartment balcony. The oldest child, 2, lay unconscious on the grass below. The infant — not yet a year old — lay further away from the building on the pavement, unmoving and foaming at the mouth.
“Two kids — a baby, a little baby, lying on the ground,” said distraught resident Mike Holland. “I tell you, it was just horrifying.”
The incident occurred around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday at an apartment building at 550 Scarborough Golf Club Rd.
Paramedics and police arrived moments later, then rushed both children to Sick Kids hospital with life-threatening injuries.
A woman in her 30s was transported to Sunnybrook hospital. Her injuries were described as not life-threatening, but police said that a fall from that height would cause “substantial injuries.”
Shortly after, a man in his 30s was arrested. As of late Saturday night, no charges were laid.
Toronto police are releasing few details, but confirmed the man and the woman were either a common-law or married couple, and that the man also plunged from the balcony.
Residents of the highrise stared in shock as police cordoned off the area below the 4th floor corner apartment with yellow police tape. A blanket lay on the grass below.
Few knew what exactly had occurred, but all were disturbed by the details they had.
Neighbours below the apartment said they heard loud shuffling and banging sounds above, while another heard shouting.
Afterward, shattered glass was strewn over the grass and pavement.
A large hole in one of the apartment’s windows — directly behind the balcony — was visible from the ground below.
“It’s devastation inside the building. Who wants to see that?” said 4th floor resident Garnet Coucill.
Coucill and several other residents did not know the people involved — “people come and go a lot,” he said — but one said the woman was the mother of the two children.
She said she’d seen the woman recently, smiling and doing laundry with the two children.
Hours after, police sat in the hallway outside the 4th floor apartment and blocked off entry to surrounding apartments, saying residents still needed to be interviewed.
Holland, who lives on the 6th floor, said he had just gone down to the main floor to put in a load of laundry moments after the incident.
A building superintendent rushed over to him screaming and asked him to come outside immediately.
“I run out and I see this little baby …” he said, putting his hands on his face, his eyes welling up.
“A little, innocent baby right by the walkway.”
Holland and several others claimed the man who was arrested had fallen off the balcony after the woman and children had fallen.
The man did not appear to be injured, and Holland said he and another resident attempted to tackle the man outside the building.
When police arrived, the man tried to grab for one of the officer’s guns, Holland said.
“I can’t believe it,” said resident Crystle Jeffrey. “Nothing like this has ever happened here.”
With files from Alexandra Posadzki