OPA-LOCKA, FLA. (WSVN) - A 2-year-old boy who survived a fall from a second-story apartment window in Opa-locka without breaking any bones is home from the hospital, but his homecoming was overshadowed by a war of words between his mother and the building’s landlord.
Kevin Wright was back home with his family on Monday, but the happy occasion led to a heated confrontation. “You’re a damn liar! You’re a damn liar!” his mother, Ronnyce Walker, screamed at landlord George Howard.
Despite her anger, Walker said she is grateful her son came away from the frightening fall with only a couple of scrapes and scratches. “If you don’t believe in God, here it is. Here it is right here, an angel,” she said. “He’s an angel, believe me. Nobody can believe this, but you see it in the flesh.”
Surveillance cameras captured the toddler as he took the fall from the building located in the area of Northwest 135th Street and 24th Avenue, Friday, just after 5 p.m.
Walker said she was in the other room when he went through the window in their second-story unit.
She said the boy’s bed was by the window, and it was open because their air conditioner doesn’t work. “I still have no air, as you can see, but he’s OK,” she said.
“Say hi, Kevin. Say hi to the cameras,” said Walker as the 2-year-old waved with both hands. “There he is, no broken bones.”
Astonishingly, the child wasn’t seriously hurt.
The happy outcome, however, did not lessen the animosity between Kevin’s mother and her landlord who claims she has not been making her rent payments. A 7News crew was present as Walker confronted Howard over the air conditioning and what she described as poor building conditions.
“You aren’t paying rent!” Howard said during their altercation.
“Well, stop lying!” replied Walker.
“You really want us to expose you? Because there’s gonna be a big problem,” apartment tenant Danielle Mengue told Howard, “because me, I can show you paperwork from FPL that you’re a liar.”
Howard denied Walker’s claims, adding that his tenants are making up their complaints about the AC because almost half of them are being evicted. “Well, uh, OK. Let’s say that the air conditioner wasn’t working. What does that have to do with her [being] negligent watching the child,” he said.
But Walker isn’t the only tenant claiming her unit’s AC is not working. Mengue backed up her account.
“Personally, it’s so hot in my apartment. I don’t have no AC, so I defend her because it’s so easy to say, ‘She is where she is,'” said Mengue, “but I see her every day taking care of her children, every day. When this kid fell on the floor, this man [Howard] was laughing.”
The Florida Department of Children and Families has been in contact with Kevin’s family.
While he and his loved ones wait to sort out the AC situation, his mother said she is thankful her son is healthy and back home. “My baby’s here. He’s strong, like I told y’all,” she said, “and now it’s time for me to work on this building. It’s going to be safer before I leave here. It’s going to be safer.”
Walker said she and her son will be staying at a family member’s house until the AC at their apartment is repaired.
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