PUNXSUTAWNEY BOROUGH, Pa. (EYT) – Child endangerment charges have been filed against two Punxsutawney residents after a small child was spotted dangling out of a third-story window.
Court documents indicate the Punxsutawney Borough Police Department filed criminal charges on May 12 against 23-year-old Tana Wollow and 21-year-old Dakota Michael Norway.
According to a criminal complaint, around 8:59 a.m. on Tuesday, May 11, Punxsutawney Borough Police were dispatched to a residence on Jefferson Street for a report of an infant on the roof.
When police arrived, they observed a small child in a diaper hanging onto the side of the third-floor window looking down. There were also several women yelling at the child to hold on and not to move as police called for the fire company to respond as soon as possible, the complaint states.
Police then attempted to enter the building to retrieve the child. However, someone then stopped the officer to inform him that an unknown person had reached out of the window, grabbed the child, and pulled him back inside.
Police then entered the building and went upstairs to the second floor and knocked on all three apartment doors for several minutes. After approximately five minutes, the door to one of the apartments opened, and police asked the woman who opened it (identified as Tana Wollow) if it had been her child on the roof.
Wollow said it was her son, and he was upstairs in the bedroom with his older brother.
Dakota Norway, who was also in the apartment, was then asked about what had occurred.
Norway reportedly told police that both children sleep in a room on the third floor and the older brother knows how to open the window and has done so before. He reported that he and Wollow were sleeping when they were awakened by yelling. He then went to the children’s room and saw the younger child out on the ledge, so he reached out and grabbed the child and brought him inside.
Police then contacted Children and Youth Services (CYS) to respond after noticing a deadbolt on the children’s bedroom door.
The complaint states that a chain-style deadbolt and a one-way door handle had been placed on the outside of the children’s bedroom door. Police also observed that the windows in the children’s bedroom, which were approximately 30 feet above the ground outside, were easily opened from the inside.
Police were also approached by a neighbor who asked if the child was alright and reported that the same thing had happened once before during the prior week, according to the complaint.
The following charges were filed against both Wollow and Norway through Magisterial District Judge Jacqueline J. Mizerock’s office on May 12:
– Endangering Welfare of Children – Parent/Guardian/Other Commits Offense, Misdemeanor 1 (two counts)
Preliminary hearings are scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on June 8 with Judge Mizerock presiding.
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