Mother hurls children off fourth floor, then jumps herself

Immigrant from Tajikstan jumps out of window after throwing two children; all survived and are being treated for broken bones.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
MDA 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
MDA 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
A mother suffering from alcohol abuse hurled her two young children from their fourth floor apartment in south Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning, before leaping to the ground herself. All three survived the fall but were seriously injured.
Stunned neighbors reported hearing cries from the children as they lay on the ground after the fall, and called emergency services.
Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated a five-year-old boy in moderate to serious condition and a four year-old girl in moderate condition to the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. The boy, who sustained a head injury, has been sedated and placed on a ventilator.
The woman was hospitalized in serious condition, and underwent surgery for numerous injuries sustained in the fall. Despite her wounds, she was fully conscious throughout the incident, police and paramedics said.
The woman told police on the scene that she had intended to kill her two children and commit suicide, a police spokeswoman told The Jerusalem Post.
Speaking from her hospital bed after the incident, the girl said her mother had cried out her father's name as she threw the children out of the apartment.
The childrens' father, who was in Ukraine during the incident, has been contacted and is on his way to Israel. The couple met when the man had visited Israel as a tourist. He was later deported for
overstaying his tourism visa, and the woman then traveled to Ukraine where the couple married. The man then obtained Israeli citizenship and the couple returned to Israel.
A police spokeswoman told The Jerusalem Post that the woman was detained several months ago after officers spotted her walking with her children while she was intoxicated.
"No criminal offenses were committed so we made no record of the incident. The incident was reported to Social Services and we let her go," the spokeswoman said.
According to media reports, the woman had been hospitalized in a psychiatric ward due to mental health issues, but Social Services had not been aware of the woman's psychiatric history.
The investigation into Tuesday's incident is being led by Dep.-Cmdr.Yigal Sanker of the Shunot police station.
Neighbors said the family had moved into the building, on Tel Aviv's Rehov Maapilei Egoz, a few months ago. The mother reportedly works as a cleaner.