Baby Drowned in Bucket

Our firm represented the parents of a one year old infant who fell into a bucket of water and drowned at the family’s apartment. The apartment had a continuously leaking ceiling that the parents had repeatedly complained to the landlord about. Instead of fixing the problem, the landlord gave the family a bucket to gather the water. Their baby, a thirteen month old infant, tragically fell into the bucket and drowned.

A 1-year-old boy drowned in a bucket his parents had set up to catch water from a ceiling leak in their Bronx apartment, police said yesterday. 

Just how little Malik Uceta, whose birthday was only three weeks ago, got headfirst into the 5-gallon pail was unclear but investigators said there were no signs of a crime. 

Malik was pronounced dead on arrival at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital, about 90 minutes after he was pulled from the bucket unconscious. 

The accident happened Wednesday afternoon while Malik's father and grandmother were watching him in the family's first-floor apartment at 1201 University Ave. in High Bridge. 

The distraught father, Juan Uceta, 26, said last night that he left his mother, Sandra, in the kitchen with Malik about 4:30 p.m. while he went to another room to eat a plate of food and talk with a visiting buddy. 

The grandmother and child went to eat in another bedroom, and then Malik toddled off, apparently to find his dad. 

Ten minutes later, the grandmother returned to the kitchen and was horrified to find Malik's legs sticking out of the bucket. 

Uceta said, "I heard my mother scream and ran to the kitchen and went hysterical. I didn't know what to do." 

He said his buddy ran to a nearby firehouse for help while his mother called 911 and he tried to administer CPR. 

"It felt like Malik was trying to blow air out, but the doctor told me later it was my imagination and it was just my breath coming out." 

Uceta said firefighters tried to revive the boy, but it was too late. 

Malik's mother, Rhodesia Jones, 24, said she was "around the corner getting my hair done and when I came home I found my baby on the kitchen table turning blue." 

She called her little boy a happy baby who loved water. 

"He was the happiest baby in the world," she said, holding the hand of a neighbor for comfort. "He went to bed with a smile and he woke up with a smile." 

Jones said "that bucket wouldn't have been there and my son would still be alive" if the ceiling leaks had been properly repaired. 

The father said a leak from a pipe started over the stove last Thursday, followed by another over the kitchen Friday. 

He said the leak was so bad he had to empty the bucket twice a day. 

The building's landlord could not be reached for comment. 

One police investigator said, "It just looks like an awful accident." 

Inside the family's apartment, Malik's sisters, Deannie, 6, and Natasha, 3, standing nearby, showed visitors a picture the older girl had drawn of a little boy. 

"This is to tell my baby brother that I love him," she said. 

01/30/2004
Copyright Daily News, L.P. Jan 30, 2004.

http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/2004/01/30/2004-01-30_bronx_tot_drowns_in_5-gallon.html