Mom in NY Criticized after 3-Year-Old Son Was Filmed Hanging outside Window on the 13th Floor

A New York mom has come under fire and is being investigated after her son was filmed hanging onto an air conditioning unit outside the window of their 13th-floor apartment.

Heart-stopping footage of the Saturday incident shows the three-year-old boy in diapers as he climbed the air conditioning unit and dangled over the edge, WABC reported.

Jennifer Mares filmed the scary scene outside the Butler Houses in the Bronx and told ABC News she was at the park with her son when someone said a baby was outside the window.

“Go inside! Oh my God!” frightened witnesses could be heard yelling in the video.

Mares spoke to CBS New York about her reaction at the dangerous sight:

"It was just unbelievable. My heart was in panic. I didn’t know what to think anymore."

Mares told the station that she had to run up the building when it became clear nobody was aware that the toddler was inches away from falling to his death outside the window.

“I was banging on the door,” she recalled. “We just rushed inside because they had no idea that the baby was outside.”

The child’s mother, who has not been named, told WABC that her son is autistic and has a visual impairment and believes he snuck out while she was cooking dinner in the kitchen.

The mother, an immigrant from Mali, said her son had pushed the side panels of the air-conditioner apart to make his way through.

Her 14-year-old daughter, the mother said, calmly reached outside the window and pulled him back inside.

“I believe in God more,” the mother declared. “Because if it wasn’t God, my son wouldn’t be alive today.”

The mother is now facing criticism from neighbors and community residents, as she told the station:

"They were calling me names. 'You stupid, dumb, African lady. You don't know nothing. You think this is Africa? This is America. You will go to jail.' God saved my boy and he will save me from these people."

Meanwhile, the New York Administration for Children's Services is currently investigating the incident.

"Our top priority is protecting the safety and wellbeing of all children in New York City,” their statement read. “As soon as this family came to our attention, we launched an immediate investigation."

The mother then told the New York Post that an ACS worker inspected the apartment on Sunday and told her the agency would be monitoring her [the mother] for the next three months.

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