“Mommy!
Mommy!” Freddy Martin cried out, unable to move, as he lay on the concrete
sidewalk in front of the Nelson Ave. building in Morris Heights, witnesses
said.
“I
looked out the window and was scared,” said neighbor Wanda Simonetti. “I saw
his body on the ground.”
Emergency
workers initially suspected the critically injured boy took a spill from the
fire escape outside his third-floor apartment around 8:30 p.m. Friday — until
he managed to tell a cop that he was pushed, police sources said.
Nancy Siesel for New York Daily
News
Casmine
Aska, 17, is led out of the 46th Precinct in the Bronx on Saturday night after
his arrest for allegedly pushing 9-year-old neighbor Freddy Martin off the roof
of their Bronx apartment building.
Before
losing consciousness, Freddy told the officer during an ambulance ride to New
York Presbyterian-Columbia Medical Center in upper Manhattan that a neighbor,
Casmine Aska, tossed him off the roof of the brick walkup, the sources said.
“The kid told a cop, when they were going to the hospital, that he was thrown
from the roof,” a source said. “The boy named the suspect.”
Once
the child arrived at the hospital, doctors placed him on life-support. He
remained in grave condition with severe body trauma on Saturday.
Investigators
later learned that Aska, who lived on the fourth floor, grabbed the child from
his apartment and dragged him up to the roof, sources and witnesses said.
Freddy’s
grandmother, who was baby-sitting him in the apartment, didn’t immediately
realize the child had even left the home. She told neighbors the boy was lying
down and disappeared after he got up to get a drink.
Joe Marino/New York Daily News
Building
on 1545 Nelson Ave. in the Bronx is where a 9-year-old was tossed from the
roof.
“(Freddy)
was screaming,” said one neighbor, who ran outside her first-floor pad when she
heard “a commotion” upstairs. “He was saying, ‘Stop!’ ” said the neighbor, who
did not want to give her name. She said the echoes of “laughing and hooting”
sounded like a group of kids horsing around in the hallway.
But
when she peeked up the stairwell, she saw two youths wrestling. Dismissing the
rowdiness as part of the usual child’s play that occurs on the roof, the
neighbor went back to her apartment.
“That
door (to the roof) is always open,” said Wanda Simonetti. “People have
complained to the super, but nothing happens.”
The
presumed shenanigans came to a tragic end when everyone in the building heard
the child screaming for his mother — and saw his little body sprawled on the
sidewalk.
Joe Marino/New York Daily News
View from
above where 9-year-old boy was tossed.
The
5-foot-9, 165-pound Aska fled into a neighbor’s apartment. But a short time
later, a cop grabbed him as he tried to walk out with his mother and a brother,
sources said.
The
17-year-old Aska, was taken to the 46th Precinct stationhouse in University
Heights, where he told detectives conflicting stories. “He gave several
versions,” a police source said.
Aska,
after initially denying he played a role in Freddy’s plunge, told cops the boy
accidentally fell off the roof, sources said.
Aska,
who said the pair had been talking about a video game, acknowledged going to
the building’s roof and walking to the edge. He told cops Freddy walked toward
him. “He said Freddy tried to grab him and in doing so fell from the roof,” the
source said.
Joe Marino/New York Daily News
Roof of
1545 Nelson avenue in the Bronx where Freddy Martin, 9, was thrown off.
Sources
said there’s “physical evidence” showing Freddy was dragged from his apartment
and pushed off the roof, and Aska was charged with attempted murder on
Saturday.
“They’re
detaining my son,” said a woman who identified herself as Aska’s mother outside
the precinct building. “They won’t tell me anything. They won’t let me see my
son.”
Wearing
baggy black pants, a black coat and glasses, Aska was escorted from the station
about 8:40 p.m., his hands cuffed behind his back. He ignored reporters’
questions as cops loaded him into a car.
It’s
not the first time Aska has been in trouble with the law. He has four prior
arrests that include collars for robbery, assault, harassment and menacing, law
enforcement sources said.
Some
neighbors were shocked that Aska was cuffed for such a heinous crime. “He’s a
good kid,” Simonetti said. “I never would believe he would try to hurt his
friend.”
Freddy’s
grandfather, who gave his name as Juan, said the family was stunned. “I don’t
know how this happened,” he said in Spanish. “He’s a good boy.”
The
family is praying for Freddy. “He’s not doing so well,” Juan said. “We are
holding out hope.”