A 3-year-old Harlem girl died after she was caught inside a sofa bed where she and another child were sleeping in their home, police said.
Aissante Diallo and a 10-year-old sibling were on the sofa bed when it somehow folded up around 6 p.m. Sunday, trapping Aissante.
The boyfriend of the girl's mother, Mohamed Barry, who had been caring for the children at the time, flagged down a police officer on the street for help. Officers found Aissante unconscious; paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene.
The 10-year-old sibling was able to escape. Two other younger children were in the room at the time Aissante was trapped, but they were not on the bed.
Barry was charged late Monday with endangering the welfare of a child. It wasn't immediately clear if he had an attorney.
Neighbors were horrified by the child's freak death.
"Can you imagine?" said Fatsu Matza, crying. "She just stay right there and strangle herself to death."