Passerby catches falling child, say N.Y. police

updated 10:06 p.m. ET Jan. 4, 2007

NEW YORK - A 3-year-old boy was caught by a passerby after falling from the fourth-floor window of an apartment in New York City Thursday, police said.

The boy was caught by a 39-year-old man passing under the window, police said in a brief statement. The boy was taken to hospital with just minor cuts and abrasions to his head and face. Police are still investigating and gave no more details.

But brothers Julio Gonzalez and Pedro Navarez described to New York television news later Thursday how they caught the child after spotting it hanging from a fire escape.

"He was coming down pretty hard, so hard that when he landed in my arms my sneaker just flew right off and I fell down to the ground," Navarez told CBS 2 News.

The brothers said the baby then bounced off Navarez's chest and into the arms of Gonzalez, who then also fell down.

"We caught him and the boy's all right, thank God," Gonzalez said. "When I (initially) saw that baby I just ran. I wasn't thinking about anything, I was just thinking about catching that baby."

When reporters asked New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly about the incident he said: "This is the week of heroes in New York."

On Tuesday, New York construction worker Wesley Autrey jumped onto subway tracks to pin down a stricken stranger just in time to allow an oncoming train to pass over them.

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