
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 7, 1995                   TAG: 9504070049
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ARLINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

3-YEAR-OLD BOY DIES IN FALL FROM 10TH-FLOOR APARTMENT

A 3-year-old boy plunged 10 stories to his death after falling from a window in his apartment, police said.

Gabriel Hammad was playing after dinner Tuesday and went alone to his bedroom about 8 p.m. No one saw what happened next, police said, but Gabriel was gone when his 5-year-old brother, Jude, went into the room.

Jude got his mother, who had been doing housework. She looked out a window and saw her youngest child on the ground.

Gabriel tumbled out the window after climbing atop an air conditioner; he landed on his back and died instantly.

Police said they are convinced that the fall was an accident but are still trying to piece together exactly what happened.

``He was the best kid,'' Jawad Hammad, the children's father, said Wednesday. ``He was always kissing everybody and hugging everybody. Always the good die young.''

Physicians said the child's death is a harrowing example of the dangers that windows present in homes with toddlers. Dozens of children are treated at area hospitals each year for falls from homes and apartments. Seven years ago, a 4-year-old Arlington boy survived a fall from an 11th-floor apartment; doctors called it a miracle.

``It's springtime, and each year this happens around the country,'' said Craig Futterman, an intensive care specialist at Fairfax Hospital for Children. ``Parents should not underestimate the ability of a child to get to a window. If they can crawl, they're at risk, and it's especially true from toddler to kindergarten age.''

Police said Gabriel's mother, Abla, 33, was vacuuming in the living room of the two-bedroom apartment when the toddler fell. Who opened the window in Gabriel's room was in dispute, and it was not clear how long it had been open. Several other windows in the apartment also were open, police said.

The window had a screen, but it gave way when Gabriel fell against it, police said. The screen was found beside the boy's body.

Memo: Shorter version ran in Metro edition<.

by CNB