'Heroic' witnesses tried to save 5-year-old killed at the Sun Dial

ATLANTA — An Atlanta police report details the chaotic moments after a 5-year-old boy got stuck between a curvy bolted chair and the staircase wall of Atlanta's iconic Sun Dial restaurant.

Channel 2's Nicole Carr wanted a better understanding of how Charlie Holt became pinned between the structures.

The parents were sitting at a table adjacent to the window, viewing the city, and the child was playing and wandered off behind tables there.

Sgt. Warren Pickard says the floor rotation was clockwise and Charlie Holt was trying to get back to his parents moving counter-clockwise. There was just about 5 inches of space where he was stuck between the wall and chair.

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"Sometimes, things without rhyme or reason happen, and that's what we have,” Pickard said.

Carr learned it was the family's waiter who jumped the staircase and shut off the rotation device, rather than an automatic sensory shut-off. That allowed patrons, employees and the family to rip the chair from the floor and get to the child.

“People acted heroically,” Pickard said. “They tried to rescue the kid.”

The Sun Dial closed over the weekend, and Carr has not received any word on its plans moving forward.

OSHA and the Office of Insurance and Fire Safety confirm they are not regulators in this case and Atlanta police say from their standpoint, this is considered an accident.

There are no intentions to file charges against anyone.

Cox Media Group