Wall Collapse That Killed 5-Year-Old In Brooklyn Spurs Arrest: DA

BROOKLYN, NY — The contractor behind a faulty patio wall that fell and killed a 5-year-old girl in Bushwick is facing manslaughter charges for her death, prospectors announced.

Long Island contractor Nadeem Anwar was indicted on second-degree manslaughter and criminally-negligent homicide charges on Tuesday, nearly three years after a stone wall he built at a home on Harman Street fell and killed 5-year-old Alysson Pinto-Chaumana, prosectors said.

“The wall that this defendant allegedly built was a disaster waiting to happen," District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. "As a direct consequence of his alleged recklessness, the wall collapsed and caused the senseless death of a precious 5-year-old child. My heart is with the victim’s family, and we will now seek to hold this defendant accountable.”

Alysson was standing at the front patio with her mom and friends after visiting someone at the Harman Street home in August 2019 when the 68 inch-tall stone wall toppled over, crushing her skull, prosecutors said.

It turned out the wall — put up by Anwar without a permit a year earlier — was built without adhesive or reinforcing bars required under New York City building codes, prosecutors said.

"The wall was highly unstable and held together mostly by its own weight and gravity, an egregious violation of multiple provisions of the Building Code," prosectors said. "[An] engineer described the conditions as 'imminently perilous to life.'"

Anwar and his contracting company were hired to renovate the front of the three-story Bushwick building back in 2018, prosectors said.

Only licensed to work in Nassau County, Anwar had another contractor file an application for the renovations, but leave out the stone wall, according to prosecutors.

The 46-year-old contractor also didn't have a licensed engineer or architect inspect the wall's stability after it was built, which is required under building codes, prosecutors said.

Anwar and his company also face second-degree reckless endangerment, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing and second-degree falsifying business records charges for the incident, prosecutors said.

He released without bail and ordered to return to court in May.