The infant who survived a 15-story fall in the Bronx that killed her mother has taken a turn for the worse and is now in dire condition, a hospital insider said.
“They are keeping their fingers crossed,” the source said of 8-month-old Angel Novalty Carrasco-Ramirez. “She is not doing well.”
The baby was transferred to Cohen Children’s Medical Center in Queens after initial treatment at Jacobi Hospital following the Tuesday plunge. Her mother, 23-year-old Nathaly Ramirez, did not survive the fall from the 15th-floor balcony.
Angel Carrasco, 31, the child’s father and Ramirez’s ex-boyfriend, was arrested Wednesday by US Marshals and NYPD officers after fleeing the scene. He had been taken to Jacobi for a medical evaluation following the incident and is awaiting arraignment on murder and attempted murder charges.
Around 200 mourners gathered Saturday evening at the building where Ramirez and her daughter were pushed, holding a vigil sponsored by We All Really Matter (WARM), an organization that helps cover funerals for domestic violence victims. Purple and white balloons and heart-shaped candles decorated the gathering.
Attendees chanted “Justice for Nataly” and “Long live Nataly” as they remembered the young mother.
Ramirez’s mother, who also identified herself as Nathaly, addressed the crowd and spoke of her daughter’s character. “She loved honestly,” the grandmother told mourners. “She hugged with a tenderness that only had peace,” She added that her daughter “helped mistreated women, and men.”
Brianna Rios, a 24-year-old domestic violence survivor who had been consoled by Ramirez, also spoke at the vigil about the victim’s troubled history with Carrasco.
“Natalie, unfortunately, is being added onto this very long list of beautiful faces and names,” Rios said.
Rios called for systemic change in protecting victims of domestic violence. “The police were called to Nathaly’s home over five times,” she told the gathering. “The killer of Nathaly Ramirez was arrested two times – once for slapping her, the second time for breaking and entering into her home… Not only was he able to get next to her again, he was able to kill her.”
Rios continued her plea for action regarding “protecting family, children, and these beautiful women.”
Photos of other domestic violence victims stood nearby at the vigil, including Lovay Williams, who was found beaten to death in her Washington Heights apartment on West 156th Street on Sept. 6. Tiliek Shamel Thompson, 41, has pleaded not guilty to murder, strangulation, assault, and child abandonment charges in connection with Williams’s death.
Carrasco remains in custody pending his arraignment on murder and attempted murder charges.