Construction company owner sentenced to jail for child’s death following wall collapse in Brooklyn (original) (raw)

An apartment is left exposed where a corner of the residential building collapsed in the Bronx borough of New York, Monday, Dec. 11, 2023. Photo: Yuki Iwamura/AP

The owner of a Nassau County construction company, Nadeem Anwar, was sentenced to six months in jail and five years of probation for his role in the 2019 death of 5-year-old Alysson Pinto-Chaumana, who was struck and killed by falling pillars after a stone wall he built collapsed.

The company, City Wide Construction and Renovations, Inc., was fined $5,000. Anwar, 48, was convicted of criminally negligent homicide and other charges in May 2024 after a bench trial in front of Kings County Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun.

As the District Attorney’s Office was able to prove at trial, Anwar’s “egregious failure to follow the most basic safety provisions” of the New York City Building Code resulted in a “horrific, brutal and completely avoidable” tragedy.

The stone wall that Anwar built at 444 Harman St. in Bushwick in 2018 did not include required steel reinforcements or adhesive, making it highly unstable. On the night of Aug. 29, 2019, the wall collapsed onto Alysson, who was waiting with her mother on an enclosed patio. The collapse crushed the child’s skull, resulting in her death.

The front of 444 Harman St. in Bushwick, where the fatal wall collapse occurred in the backyard in 2019, leading to the death of 5-year-old Alysson Pinto-Chaumana. The construction company’s failure to follow NYC Building Code regulations resulted in the tragedy. Screenshot via Google Street View

An investigation revealed that Anwar was not authorized to file work permits with the NYC Department of Buildings (DOB) since his contractor’s license was valid only in Nassau County. He had another contractor file permits for the property’s façade renovation but failed to obtain necessary permits for building the stone wall.

A DOB engineer responding to the collapse found numerous violations, including the absence of steel reinforcing bars in the pillars and a lack of engineer-grade adhesive. The engineer concluded the wall was held together primarily by its own weight — a serious breach of building codes.

Following Alysson’s tragic death and a similar incident in the Bronx in 2021, the Department of Buildings began public outreach efforts to educate communities about the dangers of unsafe construction.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Adam Libove and Pamela Murray of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office and investigated by the NYC Department of Buildings and Department of Investigation.

Construction company owner sentenced to jail for child’s death following wall collapse in Brooklyn (original) (raw)

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