A Wake County child is fighting for his life after climbing over a third-floor balcony railing while his parents were asleep, and both parents are now behind bars facing felony child abuse charges. Deputies were called around 5 p.m. on Nov. 7 to a home on Chandler Ridge Court about a reported child fall, and the boy was rushed to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.
According to court documents cited by WRAL, the child opened the balcony door on his own while his parents were asleep, then climbed over the railing before falling. Deputies arrested 28-year-old Jawon Whitley and 26-year-old Saniya Person and charged both with felony child abuse in connection with the incident, the outlet reported.
Whitley was being held in jail on $50,000 bond as of Tuesday. Deputies said the investigation remains ongoing.
What North Carolina Law Says About Felony Child Abuse
The charges against the couple fall under North Carolina's felony child abuse statute, which, per an excerpt from the North Carolina General Assembly, applies to a parent or other person caring for or supervising a child under 16 who intentionally inflicts serious physical injury on that child. No additional details about how the statute applies to this specific case have been released.
Other Recent Falls and Water Incidents Involving Wake County Children
This is not the first time a young child's safety has come into question at a Wake County apartment complex. In a separate incident, a child believed to be 6 years old was pulled from a pool at Chandler Ridge Apartments and rushed to the hospital, according to ABC11, which reported the Wake County Sheriff's Office said the girl should recover. A staff member told the outlet another child had lifted the girl over a fence into the pool area, and a tenant later spotted her struggling in the water.
Balcony falls involving small children have also surfaced elsewhere in the area. CBS 17 reported that a 16-month-old toddler fell from a second-story balcony at a Raleigh apartment complex on Cove Point Drive, with the call coming in shortly after 8 p.m.; the child was transported to a hospital for treatment of injuries. Broader research on the subject, while limited in detail about its study period and population, has found that falls from windows and balconies account for a significant share of childhood apartment falls, according to a study indexed on PubMed, which found balconies and windows were involved in the large majority of apartment-related falls it examined.
For now, the central facts of the Chandler Ridge Court case remain limited to what deputies and court documents have disclosed. The child's current condition has not been detailed beyond the initial report of life-threatening injuries, and deputies have said only that their investigation continues.
