Mamoudou Gassama also met the French president and was given a medal, following his remarkable actions.
The father of a 4-year-old boy who was rescued by an immigrant from dangling from a fifth-floor balcony in Paris had left the apartment and was playing Pokemon Go, the city's chief prosecutor says.
Chief Paris prosecutor Francois Molins told the BFM television network that the father has been charged with "failure to meet parental obligations" after the boy was seen in videos dangling from the building before being rescued by Mamoudou Gassama, who climbed from balcony to balcony in an amazing demonstration of strength and agility.
Gassama has been dubbed "Spider-Man."
Mamoudou Gassama scales an apartment building to save a 4-year-old boy dangling from a balcony in Paris.
Videos of the 22-year-old Gassama's climb have been lauded around the world and French President Emmanuel Macron said he would put the Mali immigrant on a fast track to citizenship. He also is being given a job as a firefighter.
"The father left the apartment (to go) shopping and then decided to play Pokemon Go in the street which took a little time before he returned home," Molins said, adding that a window had been left open, which allowed the boy access to the balcony.
In less than a minute, a man scaled a Paris building to save a young boy hanging off a fourth-floor balcony.
The father, who has not been named, has been told to appear in court in September and could face two years in jail.
The boy's mother was not home either, Molins said, because she was visiting France's Reunion, an island in the Indian Ocean.
In the video, cheers broke out when the young migrant reached the dangling child and pulled him over the balcony before emergency services could arrive.
Paris migrant hero Mamoudou Gassama dubbed ‘Spiderman’ rewarded by French president after he climbed several stories to reach a toddler dangling from the edge of a balcony.
During Monday's meeting with Macron, Gassama was presented a certificate and a gold medal for performing an act of courage and determination.
"I ran. I crossed the street to save him," he told the president. "When I started to climb, it gave me courage to keep climbing."
God "helped me," too, he said. "Thank God I saved him."
MATTHEW DIEBEL
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