Los Angeles

Girls Flung Out 2nd-Story Window

Baby-sitter then jumps out, South Gate police say. Children are unhurt; she is arrested.

February 28, 2003|Hanah Cho | Times Staff Writer

A baby-sitter threw two girls out a second-story window of a South Gate apartment Thursday before jumping out herself, authorities said.

The girls, ages 3 and 4, fell about 15 feet into a muddy area and were not seriously hurt, their falls broken by a small tree, said Lt. Francis Arocha of the South Gate Police Department.

Tyshunna Jackson, 23, the baby-sitter, who authorities believe was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, was taken to a hospital but refused treatment. She was arrested on suspicion of felony child assault, Arocha said.

The two girls were left in the care of Jackson when their mothers went on a morning coffee run.

Soon after, Jackson allegedly went into the bathroom and threw the girls out one at a time. Jackson then jumped and left the scene, Arocha said.

Neighbors heard the girls crying and carried them into the apartment.

When the mothers came back and saw what had happened, they got into a physical altercation with Jackson, who had returned to the Palm Gate apartment on Pendleton Avenue, Arocha said.

At least one mother and her child lived in the second-floor apartment, Arocha said. The suspect did not live there.

Most of the apartment's blinds were closed, except for a small portion that peered into the kitchen. Two Starbucks coffee cups stood on the counter, and a plastic tricycle was on the ground near a hall.

Behind the building where the girls fell, a screen window and two broken branches of a tree lay on the muddy ground.

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