Construction company owner sentenced to jail in deadly 2019 wall collapse in Brooklyn

NEW YORK — The owner of a Long Island construction company has been sentenced to jail in connection to a 2019 wall collapse that killed a child.

The company was also fined.

5-year-old girl killed in 2019 wall collapse in Brooklyn

The collapse happened on Aug. 29, 2019 at a three-story building located at 444 Harman St. in Bushwick.

The Brooklyn district attorney’s office said 5-year-old Alysson Pinto-Chaumana was standing on the building’s enclosed patio with her mother and several friends when the heavy stone pillars and a stone plate from a wall suddenly fell, striking Alysson.

She was taken to a local hospital, where she died from her injuries.

Nadeem Anwar, City Wide Construction and Renovations sentenced in deadly Brooklyn wall collapse

According to the DA’s office, Nadeem Anwar and his company, City Wide Construction and Renovations, were hired to renovate the building’s facade and build the wall in September 2018. The DA’s office says Anwar was licensed as a contractor in Nassau County, but was not authorized to file for work permits with the New York City Department of Buildings.

Anwar allegedly had another contractor file an application for the facade work, but never acquired a DOB permit to build the stone wall and did not have a licensed engineer or architect check the wall’s stability after it was constructed.

The DA’s office said a DOB engineer who investigated after the collapse determined the wall was highly unstable, violated the Building Code and was “imminently perilous to life.”

In May 2024, Anwar and his company were convicted of criminally negligent homicide, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing and second-degree falsifying business records.

Anwar has been sentenced to six months in jail and five years’ probation. City Wide was fined $5,000.