Child Killed By Falling Mirror At Wal-Mart

The Indy Channel ^ | 7-23-2006

[Samwise]

INDIANAPOLIS -- A 3-year-old boy was fatally injured when a floor-mounted mirror fell on him at an Indianapolis Wal-Mart.

Police said Christopher Antonio was apparently playing near the 5-foot-tall mirror in the children's section of the store Saturday evening when it fell at the store in the 3200 block of 86th Street.

The boy was with his 5-year-old sister and his mother. The mother told police she was about 5 feet away from her son when she heard a loud crash.

Police said it took two people to pull the mirror off the boy.

[Dianna]

I'm confused. Was the cart in front of her while she traveled the aisle and she stopped and scooped things off the shelves while constantly eyeballing her kids, or did she stop and move the cart between her and the shelf thus putting her child in danger of falling objects?

I'm not sure. But I can say for certain that she NEVER took her eyes off her child. Never turned a head, without having a hold of the child physically. NEVER. The rest of us mortals are horrible parents and are lucky our children survived.

[Gabz]

No, I wasn't. I knew what was expected of me in public. I also knew it was safest near mother.

Other children also know what is expected of them in public. But according to your mother it is quite alright for mother, with children who know what is expected of them in public, to be left alone while she goes into another room to try on clothing.

But, even though your mother finds that acceptable, she finds it unacceptable to be 5 feet away from a child. A child she has no clue whether had been taught what was acceptable in public.

I can't wrap my brain around your mother's logic.

[DJ MacWoW]

But a 3 year old, an OBEDIENT 3 year old, can be told to sit right here, honey, and play with your car. The mother could have still been well within sight of the child, and he of her, while she looked for what she needed and glanced at him from time to time to make sure he was still there and behaving.

I just never did that. It only takes a heartbeat to lose something precious. And why would she sit him in front of a mirror where people may walk? Or where he could be hit by a cart? I'm sorry but I can't agree that that is responsible.

[Darkchylde]

Well, the object of shopping is to look for the items you will buy and purchase them. It isn't hard to let your child stand and look at something, or play with a toy while you scan the shelves or flip through a clothes rack while glancing over at your child every few seconds or so.

It also isn't hard to just keep them in a cart. They can still play in the basket if they just can't fit in the seat.

You, and your mother, are assuming that the child was physically out of her sight, instead of considering that she simply wasn't looking at the child every moment.

If she wasn't looking, there were moments when he was out of sight. It would've simply been easier & less tragic if she had just kept him by her through some measure. Even if my mother wasn't looking right at me, she had a hold of me.

If my child is standing next to me and my head is turned, I may very well HEAR a problem before seeing it.

If they're standing next to you, they're not five feet away & unreachable when it counts.

[Gabz]

How dare YOU negate a parents responsibility to their childs safety.

How dare you ignore everything I have said on this thread. I have never said she was blameless, not once.

Now, are you a=going to address the rest of what I have said to you? If not, please let me know so that I can go find something more productive to do than argue with you.

[new cruelty]

This thread is an opportunity to show how perfect I am at parenting. My parents and my parents parents (that would be my grandparents) were models of perfection and taught me well. As children, we would were virtually motionless, staring at each other, eyes glassed over, and if we wanted to communicate, we did it by blinking our eyes. My parents hooked up fiber optic lines that emitted a very high grade holographic image, and enabled them to keep sight of us every waking minute of the day. One too many blinks and we were sent to bed. When we slept, we were each encased in steel chambers for precisely 10 hours and 33 minutes each night. Nothing could ever harm us. But that was in the 70s and you wouldn't understand.

[Dianna]

Well, I apologise. When you repeatedly said that the mother should NEVER have taken her eyes off the child, I inferred that you NEVER took your eyes off your children.

Clearly, you agree that that is impossible since you felt it necessary to have physical contact with your children at all times.

Yet, you cannot respond whether or not it is possible that the mother turned her head away for a moment when the mirror fell. Would the child have been safer if the mother had ahold of his hand? Certainly, well, unless they were both standing in front of the mirror.

My children were inclined to behave themselves. I didn't find it necessary to clutch them to me at all times. They survived. Most children do. This accident may have occurred because the mother was not watching her child closely enough. It may have occurred even though the mother was as vigilant as most people and the child behaving perfectly. We just don't know. I'm willing to admit that. Are you?

[Dianna]

One more time, is a 3 yr olds safety the responsibility of the parent?

One more time, if the child was well within the mother's sight and playing nicely on the floor, but she turns her head away for a moment is she still a horrible mother?

[new cruelty]

We're such miserable parents.

Enjoy dinner!!

Yes, poor poor you.

As for me and mine, dinner was a success. The wife prepared a delicious meal that we all enjoyed. Both my three year old and 7 month old sat quietly and patiently waited until dinner was complete before daring to make a peep. When they did, it was to thank us for being such perfect parents. I'd ping them to verify this is true, but even I don't buy it. :)

[pamlet]

Laugh..... aaaaa even Mary Poppins was PRACTICALLY perfect in every way...

Maybe you could get a job as a Nanny .... ;)

[Dianna]

I just never did that. It only takes a heartbeat to lose something precious. And why would she sit him in front of a mirror where people may walk? Or where he could be hit by a cart? I'm sorry but I can't agree that that is responsible.

Because YOU don't find it acceptable to let your child be 5 feet away and glance at them periodically, doesn't mean this mother was negligent. Heck, I grew up in California and heard about babies drowning in their parent's pools every summer. I wouldn't own a pool with a toddler around. But people do.

Some mirrors, especially those for trying on clothes are recessed. Unless someone needs to use the mirror, the child might be safer there out of the flow of traffic. Trying to navigate a cart around racks of clothes is a huge pain in the butt and it is very easy to loose a child who is supposed to stay next to you as you walk around the rack.

I have actually told my children to "sit right there" while I walked from rack to rack, glancing at them and watching for movement out of my periferal (totally misspelled, I'm sure). It seemed a better idea than trying to flip through a rack with one hand or freak out because he's gotten around the bend of the rack and I couldn't see him from where I was.

[DJ MacWoW]

You chose to change it into something else.

Actually on the very first page freepers started asking why the child wasn't in a cart. I'm not the only one.

[Dianna]

They can still play in the basket if they just can't fit in the seat.

To be honest, I find putting a child in the basket irresponsible. I cannot push the cart and grab the child if he tries to stand. I'd much rather he walk.

[Krodg]

Is a parent responsible for a 3 yr olds safety while in a store?

Of course, and your mother was very negligent in that regard.

What makes you think the mother in this case didn't have the same attitude about her children?

[csvset]

Some more info & a video clip at the link....

Child killed by mirror at west side Wal-Mart

uly 24, 2006, 07:38 PM

Christopher Antonio

Indianapolis - Police say a three-year-old boy was killed after stepping on to the rubber bumper of a three-sided, six-foot-high mirror at a west side Wal-Mart Saturday. The mirror fell on Chrisopher Antonio, 3, who died from his injuries.

Somehow the mirror came unhinged. "He actually stepped on the mirror to some degree and that mirror became unhinged," said Capt. Phil Burton, Marion County Sheriff's Department. "It fell on top of him and crushed him."

The 911 call came in for paramedics around 6:00 pm Saturday night. Christopher was taken to Methodist Hospital, where we was pronounced dead a short time later.

"The coroner's office was called. The coroner's office called the sheriff's department and that was about four hours later," said Burton.

Now Marion County sheriff's department investigators are being forced to conduct the investigation backwards. "When you go to investigate a crime, we want the crime scene left untouched. By the time our detectives got on the scene, everything was cleaned up; it was taken to the rear of the store, so everything had been moved. Right now it doesn't appear any criminal activity has taken place; it is just an unfortunate freak accident that happened to take this little boy's life," said Burton.

Family members declined an on-camera interview but are working to raise money to transport Antonio's body back to Mexico to be buried.

[DJ MacWoW]

I have to admit ... I've glossed over SOME posts - but I don't remember seeing anyone saying a parent has no responsibility for their childs safety in public.

This started because I and other freepers questioned why the child wasn't in a cart. It exploded from there.

[DJ MacWoW]

The last resort are insults?

See post 615

[DJ MacWoW]

Fixated on my mother and the 50's?

Read post 615

[Dianna]

If she wasn't looking, there were moments when he was out of sight. It would've simply been easier & less tragic if she had just kept him by her through some measure. Even if my mother wasn't looking right at me, she had a hold of me.

And if we wrapped children in bubble wrap and put helmets on them they would never get hurt. I don't think your mother's level of vigilance is bad, I think it is unnecessary for many children, mine included.

[DJ MacWoW]

were models of perfection and taught me well.

Bet they didn't let you climb on mirrors.