Man throws 3-year-old son off New York building then jumps

Father who was involved in a custody dispute who was supposed to turn his 3-year-old son over to the boy's mother instead threw the child off the roof of a 52-story Manhattan building.

NEW YORK // A father involved in a custody dispute who was supposed to turn his 3-year-old son over to the boy’s mother instead threw the child off the roof of a 52-storey Manhattan apartment building before jumping to his death, police said.

Officers responding to an emergency call reporting two jumpers from the building on the Upper West Side on Sunday found Dmitriy Kanarikov, 35, of Brooklyn, and the boy on the lower rooftops of two separate nearby buildings.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene and his son, Kirill Kanarikov, was pronounced dead at a hospital, police said. A witness said the boy was wearing Christmas pyjamas.

The boy’s mother had custody of the child and the father, who had visitation rights, was supposed to hand the boy over to the mother at a police station on Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

Luis Ortiz told the New York Post that he was at the hospital when paramedics rushed the boy there and that they were pumping his chest and working on him.

“You could tell he was slipping away. They said the father was up there, but they didn’t bring anyone else in. It was just heartbreaking. I have two kids of my own. They tried to do the best they could,” Mr Ortiz said.

Authorities said the father did not live in the building listed as South Park Tower

It’s the second time this year that a parent and child have been involved in a fatal plunge from a New York apartment building.

In March, a woman clutching her baby son in her arms plunged eight stories out of a Harlem apartment window to her death, but the 10-month-old survived. Authorities found a suicide note in her home.

*Associated Press