A Chicago mother faces criminal charges after her toddler son fell through an open window.
Police said the mother, Vernisha Carter, 22, and the father, Tommy Franklin, left their 2-year-old child home alone Tuesday night on the city's Southwest Side to take a short trip to the store.
"We came back within five and seven minutes," Franklin told reporters. "We seen people outside, police, and they tell us that my son had fell from the second floor window."
The boy tumbled out a second-story window of the home in the 6100 block of South Artesian Avenue. A neighbor found the boy lying on the ground around 9:10 p.m. with a bad scrape on his head. He was taken immediately to Comer Children's Hospital
Police took Carter into custody when she returned home a short time later. She was charged with reckless endangerment of a child and reckless conduct.
The child is expected to fully recover, but Franklin says he and his girlfriend have learned from the experience anyway.
"We learned that lesson, not to leave a child in the house. I don't care if it's once second. We go out, he go out with us," he said.
Police said the boy will be released into the care of the Department of Children and Family Services.
City officials ordered all tenants to find new places to live after deeming the building uninhabitable.
