SPRINGFIELD — A Springfield man is recovering at the Baystate Medical Center after he slipped while trying to escape out a fifth-story window and fell to a second story balcony below.

Springfield Police Lt. Larry Brown said the incident began with a call to police at about 4 a.m. Sunday reporting a domestic situation in a fifth floor apartment at 101 Lowell St. Officers arrived on the scene to find a loud altercation going on behind a locked door, and the suspect inside refusing to open it for police. Officers said they could hear a woman crying while the suspect barricaded the only access to the apartment.

Officers began kicking the door and finally were able to force their way in, only to find the male party had fled out a window. A pool of blood was found on the ground below the window but no suspect. As they searched the area, police noticed a second floor window directly below the apartment the man left was open.

The suspect told police he slipped while trying to get out the apartment window and fell three stories, landing on the balcony at the second floor apartment. That is where officers found him with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries, Brown said.

The incident remains under investigation.