2-year-old survives possible drop from Orange apartment balcony, 2 arrested

A 2-year-old boy survived a possible one-floor drop from an Orange apartment into a balcony late Thursday night, police said, suffering minor injuries.

A man and a woman were arrested on suspicion of child endangerment.

Officers were called at about 10:30 p.m. to check on the welfare of a child at an apartment complex on Chapman Avenue, said Orange police Sgt. Phil McMullin.

They responded to the Renaissance at Uptown Orange apartments, adjacent to the Santa Ana River trail, and went to a third-floor unit, McMullin said.

“As (officers) walked in, they heard a commotion and saw the suspect trying to get away on the balcony,” McMullin said.

A woman was also in the unit at the time.

At the same time, the neighbor in the unit below the balcony heard a thud and then found the crying child on his second-floor balcony, he told news photographers on the scene.

“He didn’t appear to have anything broken or bleeding,” Thomas Kappler said, adding that he called police.

The one suspect managed to escape from the balcony and officers searched for about one hour before finding him near the front of the complex.

McMullin said it’s unclear exactly how the child came to end up on the balcony below, adding it was “very fortunate” the child was not more seriously injured.

“We don’t know if that baby was thrown down below, somehow climbed down on their own, or somebody placed the baby there as they were climbing down,” McMullin said.

It was unclear if the man was the child’s father and the relationship between the adults. McMullin said none of them lived in the unit where officers were initially called.

The child was expected to be released from the hospital Friday afternoon and turned over to Orange County Child Protective Services.