Metro

Bronx girl, 8, tragically killed when granite handrail falls on her

An 8-year-old Bronx girl was tragically killed when a 10-foot piece of granite handrail fell on her head as she played outside her home, authorities said Tuesday.

The little girl, identified by relatives as Fatima Jannat Chowdhury, was with a friend when the victim tried to squeeze through the granite columns attached to her front porch in Westchester Square around 8 p.m. Monday, cops and police sources said.

A 10-foot section of the balustrade’s railing suddenly crashed down on top of the girl, killing her, according to officials and cops.

“All we heard was commotion,” neighbor Sergio Valentin told The Post. “My neighbor called and asked if my kid was over there playing. He wasn’t, but we ran over to see what happened.

“She was already on the ground, and there was mad blood all around her,” Valentin said of Fatima. “The ambulance came and worked on her, but she had already lost a lot of blood. She wasn’t moving at all.”

The little girl’s mother told investigators that she was cooking in the home on Zerega Avenue near Tratman Avenue with other relatives when she heard a child screaming, police sources said.

When the family rushed down the stairs, they found the girl bleeding from her head, laying underneath the banister, the sources said.

The 8-year-old girl was pronounced dead at Jacobi Medical Center.
The 8-year-old girl was pronounced dead at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. Robert Miller for NY Post

The child, who suffered head trauma, was rushed to Jacobi Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

The victim’s aunt told detectives that she and the family had moved into the apartment three or four months ago — at which time the owner warned them to be careful with the loose banisters, according to police sources.

“Because of this …. stone, we lost a life,” said one of the victim’s uncles, who lives in Michigan and declined to give his name.

“If this is weak, then he should not have built it like this,” the relative said, referring to the landlord and the banister.

The city Department of Buildings said it is investigating why the structure collapsed. DOB said it had not received any prior reports about problems with the structure.

Police say the handrail fell onto the 8-year-old girl after her and a friend tried to squeeze through granite columns.
Police say the handrail fell onto the 8-year-old girl after her and a friend tried to squeeze through granite columns. Robert Miller for NY Post

A man identified by neighbors as Fatima’s grandfather wept inconsolably outside the home, surrounded by fallen balusters and a pool of dried blood. A pink bike, a scooter and several Barbie dolls remained in the front of the house.

“I never expected this to happen to a girl her age,” said Sheuly Rhaman, the family’s former landlord, of the dead little girl. “She was so happy.

“Her grandmother brought her to school,” Rhaman said. “She lived there with her mother, her grandparents.”

Neighbor Barbara Odai added, “She was such a happy child.

“I cannot imagine what the parents are going through,” she said.

The tragic incident comes nearly two years after an eerily similar accident killed a 5-year-old girl outside a Brooklyn home.

Little Alysson Pinto-Chaumana died after a granite railing tumbled down on her while she was playing in front of a relative’s house in Brunswick.

The 6-foot-long, 3-foot-high railing, which experts said likely weighed between 400 and 500 pounds, left the girl with brain trauma,  and she was later pronounced dead at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. 

“We were just walking, and she was playing,” Alysson’s mom, Maria Lorensa Chaumana Camacho, told The Post at the time.

“She was playing with the wall,” the mom said. “I looked to the street for a second. She touched it and it fell on top of her.”