Young Boy Falls 9 Stories to His Death in Apparent Suicide

By KSEE News

Jarod Barnett, 9, died after falling from the ninth floor of the Young Manor building in Detroit

July 19, 2012 Updated Jul 19, 2012 at 11:06 AM PDT

A nine-year-old Michigan boy fell to his death from his ninth-floor bedroom window in what police suspect was a suicide.

Jarod Barnett's body was found on Wednesday afternoon by neighbors, lying on a grass verge outside his apartment block in Detroit, Michigan.

According to police he had threatened suicide in the past and sources said he had recently been in trouble for shoplifting.

Michele McCray, a neighbour in the low-income Young Manor complex on Detroit's south side, raised the alarm at 5.30pm. She told the Detroit Free Press: 'I heard a thump and then someone moaning 'I really didn't feel I should go over there.' Instead she ran inside and called 911.

Police were the first to arrive on the scene, and declared Jarod dead.
Shockingly no ambulance was available to attend the scene, and his body had to be taken to the nearby Henry Ford Hospital in the back of a squad car.

Michigan State Representative Rashida Tlaib is outraged no ambulance could be spared, blaming city budget cuts that have left emergency services short on resources.

She told the newspaper: 'It's just unbelievable. Can you imagine the family of that child - not seeing any ambulance come.'

To read more about this story at the DAILY MAIL, CLICK HERE.

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