Mother of 3 falls to her death from fifth-floor window in harlem

Officers were responding to a 911 call at 70 Lenox Ave., one of several buildings at the Martin Luther King Jr. Towers,for a violation of a restraining order, when they spotted Quanneisha Baskerville, 30, hanging from the window ledge just after noon, police said.

She had stopped by her estranged boyfriend’s apartment to drop off their three children, ages 4, 9 and 10, when his roommate called 911, police said. She was in the bedroom with two of the children; one child opened the apartment door to allow the officers inside, police said.

The officers entered the apartment and spotted Baskerville outside of the window before she fell, police said. Emergency responders transported her to Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital, where she died. The Police Department’s Force Investigation Division is investigating the death.

Baskerville’s boyfriend had obtained a restraining order against her, according to the police. Baskerville faced assault and harassment charges after being accused of kicking in his apartment door and damaging the lock on Jan. 26. Later that day, she punched him in the face and bloodied his lip, according to a complaint filed in Manhattan Criminal Court.

Her boyfriend did not respond to requests for comment.

On Facebook, a woman who identified herself as Baskerville’s sister wrote: “I’m really lost for words. I lost my little sister yesterday. This news has hit me so hard. Quanneisha I’m going to miss you. Love you always your big sister.”

Baskerville lived near her children’s father in another building within the housing complex. Erick Velazquez, 15, who lives on the same floor as Baskerville, said he saw the mother of three hanging from the window.

“The cops came and told her to get off the window sill,” he said. “By the time the big police van came, she jumped. She landed on her back.”

He said he heard officers shouting from inside the apartment: “Get off the window sill. You don’t have to do this.”

Baskerville’s neighbors said she often fought with her children’s father, but was an attentive mother.

“I’d see her taking her kids to school in the morning,” said Cristina Segarra, 33. “She say, ‘Fix your clothes, fix your sneakers, we’re going to be late.’ I’m still in shock.”

Brenda Deleston, 72, who lived next door to Baskerville, said the young mother “didn’t take no stuff.”

“The wall would be banging. She’d be in there boxing,” Deleston said, referring to the fights she overheard. “I miss that banging and fussing and arguing. I prayed it wasn’t her.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Mother of 3 falls to her death from fifth-floor window in harlem

Officers were responding to a 911 call at 70 Lenox Ave., one of several buildings at the Martin Luther King Jr. Towers,for a violation of a restraining order, when they spotted Quanneisha Baskerville, 30, hanging from the window ledge just after noon, police said.

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