BROOKLYN, NY – A Valley Stream building contractor, Nadeem Anwar, 46, owner of City Wide Construction and Renovations, Inc., was indicted on manslaughter charges of a 5-year-old girl after a wall he built collapsed on the child, killing her.
Anwar is also being charged with criminally negligent homicide, second-degree reckless endangerment, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, and second-degree falsifying business records.
According to court records, Anwar was released without bail and ordered to return to court on May 11, 2022. On August 29, 2019, at approximately 8:23 p.m., at 444 Harman Street, a three-story building in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Alysson Pinto-Chaumana, 5, was with her mother and several friends while visiting a friend.
“The 68″ tall wall that fenced in the patio the group was standing on, had a base of heavy stone pillars topped with stone horizontal plates. While waiting by the front door on the patio, the pillars and a horizontal plate fell inward onto Alysson, crushing her skull which caused her death,” the charges against Anwar state. “An investigation into the collapse determined that the defendant, a licensed contractor, who was hired to renovate the façade of the property and build the wall in September 2018 allegedly committed numerous violations of the New York City Building Code. Although he was licensed as a contractor in Nassau County, he was not authorized to file for work permits with the NYC Department of Buildings and had another contractor file the application for the work on the façade, but not for building the wall.”
According to city records, Anwar allegedly did not acquire a DOB permit to build a stone wall at 444 Harman Street, which was required, nor did he have a licensed engineer or architect conduct a post-construction analysis of the wall’s stability as required.
According to construction code, a row of stone pillars must have at least one pillar every 48 inches with a steel reinforcing bar anchoring that pillar to the base. All of the pillars must also be secured to the base with an engineer-grade adhesive.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said, “The wall that this defendant allegedly built was a disaster waiting to happen. He allegedly failed to obtain the proper permits and failed to reinforce and secure the structure as required by law. 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.”