As bystanders watched a toddler wearing only a diaper on the roof of a house, a hero happened to be driving by. He wasn’t about to join the rubberneckers and watch as this child’s life hung in the balance. He knew he had to help.
Remarkably, people stood and watched the unaccompanied child on the roof of the Ontario house. People were more interested in seeing what would happen rather than helping. This child was just seconds from falling to his death as onlookers gathered. Someone even took video of the boy as you can see below.
Khalid Tabateb was driving past with his dad when he saw the boy in danger. Khalid already had experience saving a child in his homeland of war-torn Syria. When he was just 12, he witnessed a toddler get shot in the leg. Khalid risked his life to rescue the child by quickly scooping him up and taking him to safety. So, when this hero saw a child in danger on a Canadian roof, he had to act.
“I saw him on the roof and (thought), ‘I’m going to help him,’” Khalid said. “I knocked (on) the door,” he said. “Nobody answered to me, so I broke the window.”
Once inside, Khalid bolted to the apartment upstairs after encountering a screaming woman and another child. The woman directed him upstairs where the child’s family was. That’s where the child’s mother was napping and she believed her son was napping in his bedroom, too. She was completely unaware that her son had squeezed out of a screenless window. The fast-acting teen reached through the window to rescue the young child.
“I didn’t want to scare him, you know?” he stated. “He was scared. He looked down like he was scared.”
This is Khalid Tabateb. After people noticed a toddler walking on the edge of a rooftop, they gathered on the street below. Khalid ran to the home, broke through a window, ran upstairs, and pulled the baby back before he fell.
He and his family are Syrian refugees. pic.twitter.com/wysWm4AKIy
— Muhammad Lila (@MuhammadLila) August 11, 2018
Now, anyone who has ever parented young children realizes how quickly they can get into trouble. Thankfully, this 18-year-old was nearby to do something to help the boy as everyone else watched and the mother slept.
Khalid is rather humble about the experience. He is thankful that everything turned out okay.
“I’m not a hero,” the teen said in broken English. “I’m happy he’s alive.”
If you liked this story, click here to see a man scale several balconies to rescue a child!
Source: Western Journal