TalonRider Posted January 5, 2007 Report Share Posted January 5, 2007 'Jackass' imitator critical after leaping out window AZ Central Wendy Ruderman and Christine Olley Philadelphia Daily News Jan. 4, 2007 11:33 AM PHILADELPHIA - "Jackass Number Two," the wildly raunchy movie featuring stupid-human tricks, opens with a don't-try-this-at-home disclaimer. Tragically, 11-year-old Wallison Costa didn't heed the warning. The Philadelphia boy was hospitalized in critical condition day after he leapt from a second-story window and fell 10 feet, landing on his head. The boy got the idea after watching the 2006 movie in which "Jackass" prankster Bam Margera hurls himself through a window to avoid being gored by a horde of angry bulls, police and friends said. Costa actually tried the trick twice. He successfully jumped out of a front window of his friend's rowhouse Tuesday. Then, he flung himself out a back bedroom window at about 3 p.m. while the friend, 13-year-old Bruno Potoozny, watched with bemused trepidation, according to a man who rents a room in the house. Costa's feet got tangled in television cable wires strung along the back of the red-brick rowhouse. The boy briefly dangled upside down before falling headfirst toward the concrete below, according to the renter, Leison Gouveia, 25, who said he was asleep in an adjoining bedroom at the time. "They watched the movie Jackass' and then they tried everything they watched on TV," said Gouveia, who said he learned of the incident from Bruno. Patricia Potoozny, Bruno's mother, said she came home from her clerk job at 7-Eleven to find her son's friend sprawled on the pavement. "I was going out of my mind," she said Wednesday while ringing up lottery tickets at a local convenience store. "I'd never seen anything like that in my life. I'd never seen a little boy so hurt." She and Gouveia carried the boy into a car and flagged down a police officer, said Gouveia. Mariselia Costa, Wallison's mother, couldn't be reached for comment. The boy was being treated for a head injury and bone fractures in the intensive-care unit of St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. A congealed glob of blood still marks the spot where Costa landed. The boy's jump follows a spate of cases around the globe in which kids were hurt or fatally injured after imitating stunts by "Jackass" stars. The lead pranksters in the movie are Johnny Knoxville and Margera, a daredevil skateboarder from West Chester. Magera's publicist, Shelby Meade, declined comment. Potoozny said her son and Costa, who attends nearby Carnell Elementary School, are close friends, always together. The Department of Human Services has launched an investigation. Neither boy was previously known to the department, said agency spokesman Ted Qualli. Neighbors said the two boys are known for tomfoolery. "They're crazy kids," said Nicholas Martin, 18, who lives across the street from Potoozny. "They're always on the roof jumping around. They're always cutting school. They're wild." Martin said his father recently yelled at the boys because they were on the street at 1 a.m. with a BB gun, shooting pellets at his house. Area mom Harriet Lincoln, whose 13-year-old son Jahlil is friendly with Bruno Potoozny, said she no longer wants her son hanging out there, especially without adult supervision. "My son won't be going up there no more," said Lincoln, 42. "Oh, no, playing a stunt like that, oh, no! I'm so glad my son wasn't there." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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