Father Holds Baby, Tries to Jump Off Balcony Rail

An agitated father jumped off a third-floor balcony with his 4-month-old daughter Saturday afternoon, but Burbank police and firefighters caught the man and his child in midair and--after a struggle--pulled them both to safety, authorities said.

“It was an incredible thing,” said Police Lt. Larry Koch. “He went over the side, but before he went very far, the officers reached over the balcony and grabbed him. He released the child, and the child started to free fall. A firefighter reached over the railing and grabbed her.”

In his efforts to save the child from plummeting three floors, Firefighter Ron Pearlman nearly fell head-first off the balcony but was held by a police officer.

After the struggling father, Rodolfo Regaldo, 31, was pulled to safety, he was arrested on suspicion of attempting to murder his daughter. The child was not injured.

Police had been called to the apartment in the 2300 block of North Naomi Street about 3:30 p.m. by Regaldo’s wife, who said that her husband had threatened to stab her during an argument.

When the officers arrived, Regaldo was sitting on the balcony guardrail with his daughter.

“He was saying he was going to jump and kill himself and kill the child,” Koch said.

For more than 10 minutes, Spanish-speaking police officers on the ground below tried unsuccessfully to persuade the man to return to the safety of the balcony.

Suddenly, Koch said, Regaldo stood on the narrow railing, holding the crying child in his left hand.

Police Officers Reeve Rickard and Dave Decker, who had been waiting inside the apartment, rushed toward Regaldo, as he jumped, still holding the child.

One of the officers caught him, and the officers tried to drag him back onto the balcony, Koch said.

As Regaldo struggled with the officers, he let go of the child, who fell until Pearlman caught her in midair, Koch said.

“I reached out far enough to the point that I was going over the side, but I was focused on just one thing--getting the baby away from the father,” Pearlman said.

But after Pearlman grabbed the baby, Regaldo--still dangling over the balcony railing--tried to wrestle her out of the firefighter’s hand, Koch said. Pearlman said one of the police officers was also trying to yank the baby back to safety.

“We were pulling opposite each other like a tug-of-war,” the firefighter said.

At one point in the three-way struggle, Pearlman said he was holding the child’s shirt but then he “heard the shirt starting to tear” and grabbed her arm.

Finally, both the father and the police officer let go of the little girl and Pearlman carried her into the apartment.

The police officers struggled with Regaldo for several more minutes before they were able to haul him back over the rail and onto the balcony, Koch said.

He is being held in Los Angeles County Jail without bail. The child was taken to St. Joseph Medical Center for observation and then returned to her mother.