KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The parents of a three-year-old child who fell nine stories to his death from an Independence apartment building window are suing the company that manufactured the window.
Destiny Randle and Moses Bass, the parents of Tidus Bass, filed the wrongful death lawsuit in Jackson County Court against Crown Diversified Industries Corp., doing business as Crown Window Corp. in St. Louis.
The suit alleges the bedroom window, "supplied and installed by Crown Window Corp. lacked basic fall-protection safety features that would have prevented a child from such a height. These safety measures were well known in the window industry and simple to implement."
The lawsuit states that the company "nevertheless installed a window that permitted a small child to open it far enough to fall nine stories to his death."
The company, according to the lawsuit, is based in Chesterfield, Missouri, and supplies and installs windows for multi-family housing, hospitality, senior living, and student housing projects.
They were hired in 2015 to remove and replace windows at Independence Towers.
Among the claims in the lawsuit, Crown Window "failed to install any additional safety and fall-protection devices on the Independence Towers Windows, in violation of Section 1015.8 of the 2015 International Building Code."
The fatal fall happened at about 10 a.m. on July 29, 2024, at the Independence Towers Apartments, located at 728 N. Jennings Road in Independence.
A court document filed when Randle and Bass were charged in Jackson County Court with endangering the welfare of a child states Bass was outside the building with his dog, talking with the building manager, when he noticed emergency medical personnel and Independence firefighters arrive at the building.
Tidus Bass was found lying next to a diaper with toys on the ground.
Both parents told police they were aware of safety problems with the window in the bedroom where the children slept.
Bass, according to a court document, told Independence investigators that he and Randle knew about the safety hazards of the window in the children's room since June 2023. He said he also knew that the children could bypass the locks and get out of the window since December 2023.
Bass also told police the couple put a blue metal pole in the track of the window and locked the windows.
He knew one of the children was able to remove the bar and unlock the windows because the children were throwing toys out the window, the court document states.
Both parents reached a plea agreement in their cases and were placed on probation for five years.
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