An elderly man plunged to his death during a home invasion in Washington Heights early Saturday morning after a neighbor saw the victim climb out a window and fall onto scaffolding, according to cops and a report.
A trio of burglars descended on an apartment in the residential building near 161st Street and Broadway around 4:30 a.m. after one of the thieves scaled a fire escape, broke through a window and let the other two perps inside through the front door, police said.
The burglars tied up a 40-year-old man and stole a gold chain worth around $8,000 and about $200 in cash, according to authorities.
As the unnerving robbery unraveled, the restrained man’s father, Jacinto Remigo, 73, fell from the unit’s window onto construction scaffolding, police said.
He was rushed to Harlem Hospital, but could not be saved.
The NYPD said it is still probing how the man fell, but a neighbor, Heriberto Garcia, told NBC 4 that Remigo climbed out of the window and attempted to use a small ledge to reach another window leading up to the fatal fall.
“There was a loud bang early in the morning,” another resident, Richard Ramsundarsingh recalled CBS 2.
“I heard the sound. You think it’s the neighborhood.”
Footage from the heart-wrenching scene showed Remigo on a stretcher as first responders worked to get him onto the sidewalk and into an ambulance.
“It’s just terrible,” neighbor Henrique Sobrinho told ABC 7.
“And my condolences to him and his entire family – it’s awful.”
The three burglary suspects, all men, are being sought by the NYPD after they fled.
