A FOUR-YEAR-OLD boy is now dead after being flung from the roof of his home in Brooklyn, New York, by his 20-year-old Guyanese brother.

Dead is Shimron Smith, who was thrown from a seven-storey apartment building by his sibling, Shawn Smith, who has now been charged with second-degree murder.
The incident took place around 3:30am on Saturday at their Nostrand Avenue home in the East Midwood neighbourhood.

Shimron was the youngest of six siblings and was pronounced dead at the scene by the police, who arrived following a 911 call.

According to the medical examiner, the boy died from multiple blunt force injuries and his death has been ruled a homicide.

Reports coming from NBC news state that when asked by reporters if he meant to hurt his brother, Shawn had responded “not really” with an apparent grin on his face.
According to the boy’s aunt, Shavon Firth, since relocating to the US less than a year ago Shawn had spent some time in a mental institution.

However, she told the news agency that the young man had been refusing treatment and the guidance of an assigned social worker.

Other reports coming out of the New York Post state that the young man has a history of schizophrenia and calmly confessed to the police when they arrived on the scene.
“I just killed my brother — I took my brother up to the roof and I threw him off,” sources told The Post.

He then reportedly led officers to where Shimron’s body lay in the courtyard.
Shawn’s family told reporters that the young man has been hearing voices that ordered him to do “something bad,” while other sources say that he had been suicidal in the past.
His behaviour prompted several 911 calls in April, when he climbed up to the same roof at Nostrand Avenue and onlookers feared he might jump.

“My heart goes out for the family. I don’t know them but it hurts me right now. I have children, I have grandchildren,” said one emotional neighbour.

The two brothers lived with their Guyanese mother, Odessa Firth, at the time.
Shawn has no prior criminal record or history of violence, police sources say, but was charged with murder on Saturday afternoon.