Man throws toddler son from 52-storey building

A man involved in a custody dispute who was supposed to turn his three-year-old son over to the boy’s mother instead threw the child off the roof of a 52-storey Manhattan apartment building before jumping to his death, police said.

Officers responding to an emergency call reporting two jumpers from the building on the Upper West Side around noon on Sunday found Dmitriy Kanarikov, 35, of Brooklyn, and the boy on the lower rooftops of two separate nearby buildings.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene and his son, Kirill Kanarikov, was pronounced dead at a hospital, police said. A witness said the boy was wearing Christmas pyjamas.

The boy’s mother had custody of the child and the father, who had visitation rights, was supposed to hand the boy over to the mother at a police precinct on Sunday afternoon, authorities said.

Luis Ortiz told the New York Post that he was at the hospital when paramedics rushed the boy there and that they were pumping his chest and working on him.

“You could tell he was slipping away. They said the father was up there, but they didn’t bring anyone else in. It was just heartbreaking. I have two kids of my own. They tried to do the best they could,” Ortiz told the newspaper. Ortiz told the New York Daily News the tot was dressed in Christmas pyjamas.

Authorities said the father did not live in the building listed as South Park Tower, which is a short distance away from Columbus Circle and Lincoln Centre.