The daughter of legendary former Yankees manager Joe Torre was being hailed as a hero after she caught a 16-month-old baby that had fallen from an awning in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
As CBS 2's Hazel Sanchez reports, everyone in the neighborhood was talking about how the baby was dangling from the awning of the Sweetie Frozen Yogurt shop at 9104 Third Ave. in Brooklyn, when Cristina Torre, 44, came to the rescue. She happened to be walking along Third Avenue near 91st Street around 10 a.m. Wednesday when she saw the baby boy -- Dillon Miller -- hanging precariously.
All of a sudden, Dillon fell, and Torre, with her quick reflexes, was able to catch the baby in her arms before he hit the ground.
Witnesses were completely stunned.
"The child was screaming, crying, and they were attending the child, and they were, like, panicking because they didn't know who the child belonged to," a man said. "So then a lady said the child belongs to one of the people who live in that apartment."
Denise Vento of Bay Ridge said Torre had the experience to know what she was doing.
"She was positioning herself, and she works with preschool kids, and she kind of knew from what he was doing; that he was going to come down," Vento said, "and she was in the right place at the right time, thank God."
"She was amazing," said Kristen Bramsen, "and I went over to her and I said, 'You're a hero! You saved the baby!'"
Police said Dillon crawled out of his family's second-floor apartment window above the yogurt shop. The air conditioning unit was set up in the window.
Dillon's family was grateful following the incident.
"The baby's fine. The baby's OK," the boy's grandfather, Dennis Miller, told 1010 WINS' Holli Haerr.
Family members said his parents were not aware when the child slipped out of the window.
"They were sleeping or something, and he crawled through the little space and was playing around," said cousin Sandra Miller.
Neighbors said the accident really came as no surprise to them.
"I knew it was going to happen," said neighbor Dalia Amr. "She's that kind of a terrible parent - only her. The husband is really good, but she doesn't take care of him that much."
The parents - Sam Miller, 23, and Tiffany Demetria, 24 - have been arrested and charged with child endangerment. Their three other children -- ages 2, 3 and 5 -- were taken into the custody of Child Protective Services.
The little boy who fell was taken to Lutheran Medical Center, where his condition was reported as stable.
Quoted in a Newsday report, Joe Torre said he was "very proud" of his daughter for her actions.
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