Toddler plunges into hole under elevated platform at banquet hall in the Bronx

THROGS NECK, Bronx (WABC) -- A toddler took a frightening fall during a wedding rehearsal dinner, tumbling into an open shaft on the dance floor.

The little boy thankfully survived with just bumps and bruises.

On the website of the banquet hall known as Villa Barone Manor there is a picture of their crown jewel, a glass box that rises from the dance floor, so the sweet 16, the newlyweds, the bar mitzvah boys, can all make the grandest of entrances.

"He was just crying because he was scared," said Shar Griffin, the victim's aunt.

But Thursday night, it made for a dangerous drop for Isaiah Edwards, a 2-year-old who is to be a ring bearer at a relative's wedding this weekend.

During a rehearsal just after 7p.m., his aunt says that elevator was in the raised position above the dance floor, with a small gap underneath, while Isaiah and some other kids were horsing around.

"The space surrounding the elevator was wide enough that somebody could fall through," Griffin said. "All I saw was him run towards the elevator and he dropped."

The fire department says the toddler fell between five and 10 feet. Family members pulled him to safety before rescue personnel arrived and rushed him to the hospital.

"I'm telling you there's a God, a God above," said Michael Edwards, the victim's father.

Isaiah's father is breathing a sigh of relief that his son is okay, but still he can't understand how this was even possible.

"You know like when you're taking a train and somebody fell through the gap, it shouldn't have happened," Edwards said.