A mischievous toddler clutching his favorite leopard-print blankie fell to his death from a seventh-floor window in The Bronx early Sunday, police said.
“My son! My son!” cried Eduardo Santos, the distraught father of adorable 2-year-old Nayvem Santos, after finding his son’s body on a second-floor landing below, a neighbor said.
The child’s beloved soft yellow and brown blanket snagged on a brick as he fell and could still be seen hanging from it hours later.
The tragic little boy had climbed out of his crib while his grandmother, who was baby-sitting him, slept in another room in the Melrose apartment, officials said.
The bright-eyed boy, still clutching his blanket, went to the kitchen and pulled a chair to a low window there. The window had a lower metal guard on it, but the window was open all the way, leaving an 8- to 10-inch gap at the top.
Nayvem put a cooking pot on the chair, then stood on the pot and was peering out the window when he fell, neighbors said, quoting the parents.
The tragedy wasn’t discovered until the boy’s parents returned home around 4:30 a.m.
They went to check on their son and discovered he wasn’t in his crib.
A frantic Eduardo Santos, 25, looked out the open window and saw the boy’s body on top of the vestibule below, sources said.
The dad rushed down to climb out a window to reach his son.
“I saw the father sitting on the ledge [later] holding the baby saying, ‘My son! My son!’ I heard the mother say, ‘Someone call the police!’ ” said neighbor Raquel Lora, 36.
The child was rushed to Lincoln Hospital in critical condition but later pronounced dead, cops said.
It was unclear whether the open gap between the guard and the top of the window violated any city law. The Department of Buildings did not return a call for comment.
“He was a good kid, always running around and happy,” a family friend said of Nayvem.
“He liked riding his bike and liked to play with balls and throw them around.”