Posted at 2:01 p.m., Monday, January 2, 2006
Child killed in fall is identified
Advertiser Staff
The New York state toddler who died in a fall Sunday at the Hilton Hawaiian Village was identified today as Samuel Shpigler.The 3-year-old boy fell from an eighth-floor balcony at the hotel's Ali'i Tower, police said. Police said it appears to be an accident.
The boy's family is from Montebello, N.Y. Samuel's parents brought their four children and their children's maternal grandparents for a vacation that began Christmas Day.
In a statement released today by the Visitor Aloha Society of Hawai'i, the boy's grandmother, Janet Vergare of Loudonville, N.Y., said Samuel was playing with two of his siblings, ages 4 1/2 and 6, on the balcony of their hotel room when Samuel "squeezed through the railing and fell eight stories to the ground."
The family has postponed its return home until Wednesday, said Jessica Lani Rich, president and executive director of the visitor society. The family originally was scheduled to return home today.
