A Toddler Fell to His Death from an 18th-Floor Window. His Mother Is Now Pursuing Criminal Charges Against His Father
In Chongqing, a two-year-old boy fell from an 18th-floor window while his father walked the dog. Police declined to open a criminal case, so his mother has taken the case to prosecutors — and her new evidence is the window lock the boy's father bought and never used.
In Chongqing, a two-year-old boy fell to his death from an 18th-floor window while his father was out walking the dog. Police declined to open a criminal case, so his mother has taken the case to prosecutors — and her new evidence is the window lock the boy's father bought and never used.
The mother, identified as Liu, submitted a case-supervision application to the Liangjiang New Area People's Procuratorate on October 27 with her lawyer, along with a written request for a public hearing. The newly submitted evidence includes purchase records showing the father bought a simple rope-and-clasp window lock twice — and that it was installed on the balcony window, but left unclasped on the day of the fall.
In her view, the purchase itself proves the father knew the window was dangerous: a person who buys a child safety lock has already foreseen the risk. The lock could limit how far the window opened, but the clasp could be undone by hand — and on the day he left the boy alone, the father did not clasp it.
The police reasoning is at the centre of the argument. On October 23, the Yubei district public security bureau issued a notice of non-acceptance, finding no criminal facts in the case. Liu had filed a criminal complaint against her husband on October 16, accusing him of negligent homicide. The procuracy now has seven days to decide whether to accept the case for review.
Chinese social media users have followed the case closely. On Weibo, a post quoting the mother's evidence was liked more than 7,200 times, and commenters repeatedly made the same point: if the father bought a safety lock, he knew the danger, and the fall was no accident.
Under Chinese criminal law, negligent homicide can be hard to establish when a parent's carelessness — however grave — is not deemed a direct cause. The case has become a test of where that line falls, and of whether prosecutors will override a police refusal to investigate.