A 5-year-old girl was killed when a stone fence came loose and fell on her in Brooklyn yesterday.
The incident happened in Bushwick around 9 p.m. on Thursday. Police say that the girl, who has been identified as Alysson Pinto-Chaumana, was walking with her mom when she stopped and began to pull on a decorative fence in front of 444 Harman Street. As a result, parts of the heavy fence came undone and struck her, causing her to fall to the ground and sustain head trauma.
Her mother flagged down a passing ambulance, and she was taken to Wyckoff Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
The Daily News adds that the girl was attempting to climb the three-foot tall fence, and as she pulled herself up, "a marble pillar, one of 10 that lined the fence," fell on top of her.
According to the Department of Buildings website, the property has had three prior complaints, most recently in June about illegal plumbing work allegedly being done in its basement. The building's owner was issued a violation today for failure to maintain their property. A DOB spokesperson added that the marble pillars were determined to be loose, and the owner has been ordered to take them down.
A neighbor told the Post the marble had recently been placed there: “They just started working there during the summer, around June,” Martha Garcia said. “That’s new. I know it wasn’t there before.”
