A Brooklyn toddler was crushed to death when a china cabinet fell on top of her during a heated argument between her parents, cops said yesterday.
A neighbor said she heard the pair screaming at each other Monday night before there was a terrible crashing sound.
Then she heard the mother frantically shrieking, “Oh my God! Oh my God!”
A 6-foot-tall wooden cabinet, laden with ceramic dishes, crashed on top of 2-year-old Cameila Tanas inside the couple’s 73rd Street home in Bay Ridge, cops said.
The father rushed the toddler to Maimonides Medical Center but her wounds were so severe that she was transferred to Kings County Hospital’s trauma center, where she was pronounced dead.
“A piece of furniture fell on her,” the girl’s devastated father, Mofeed Tanas, told his priest, Father Mina Yanni, who accompanied him back to the apartment last night.
“He’s very shocked,” Yanni said. “It’s his daughter. They are a good family . . . I tried to speak with him but he cannot speak.”
Tanas could only shake his head at questions after he returned home from the hospital still covered in his daughter’s blood. Yanni said police took the mother away for questioning.
Police and social services spent hours at the scene interviewing neighbors but had not filed any charges as of last night.
Neighbor Carole Reichling, 55, said she heard the couple yelling at each other for about 10 minutes before the fatal incident, with the mother at one point shouting,
“Do you want to hear me scream?”
Minutes later Reichling said she heard the china cabinet crash and the mother’s frantic cries.
Reichling and another neighbor, who identified herself only as “Anetta,” said the couple had a stormy relationship over the years and that battles frequently were heard coming from their apartment.
An official with the Administration for Children’s Services – which monitors child welfare – said the agency has “no history with this family.”
Neighbors described Cameila – who has an older brother and sister – as an endearing, “beautiful child” who was small for her age, “with the biggest blue eyes.”
“She was the sweetest little girl, very friendly,” said Anetta. “A beautiful little angel.”