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Six-year-old boy falls into manhole in Cleveland

Posted at 5:09 PM, Oct 03, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-03 17:09:24-04

A six-year-old boy fell into a manhole that appeared to be covered Monday afternoon. His mother now wants answers.

Heather Lamier of Cleveland said she was walking her son to the store after school when he fell into the manhole.

“I just dropped everything and pulled him out,” she said. “He was screaming. I thought for sure he had broken bones.”

Fortunately, her son, Braylen, did not break any bones, and he did not fall all the way in.

“I caught myself,” said Braylen.

Lamier said people across the street gave him ice for his ankle, which he said was hurting. She added that there was no way for her to know the manhole was not secured properly.

“I really couldn't tell, nothing was wrong with it. It was closed,” she said.

Lamier said she alerted the authorities, despite the fact that her child was not critically injured, as a precaution.

“I didn't want that to happen to anybody else's child, so I was like, 'I have to call,'” she said.

News 5 reached out to the Cleveland Water Department. The spokesperson sent us this very brief statement:

"Cleveland Water is looking into this."

Lamier said she plans on filing a complaint with the city in the hopes that this type of incident does not happen again.