'My brain froze:' Bully eats, takes nap instead of calling the police after tossing 9-year-old off building because he was too traumatized

EXCLUSIVE: Casmine Aska, charged with attempted murder in the near-fatal Feb. 1 plunge of little Freddy Martin, told the Daily News that he opted for food and a nap instead of summoning help.

Comments (87)BY JOE STEPANSKY AND LARRY MCSHANE / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2013, 2:00 AM

NORMAN Y. LONO FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Casmine Aska, 17, is accused of tossing 9-year-old Freddy Martin from the roof of a five-story Morris Heights building. He says Freddy was hanging off the roof, and he failed in his attempt to save him. He then went to his aunt’s house and had a bite to eat.

An accused Bronx bully claims he was too traumatized to dial 911 after watching his 9-year-old neighbor fall from a five-story roof.

Casmine Aska, charged with attempted murder in the near-fatal Feb. 1 plunge of little Freddy Martin, told the Daily News that he opted for food and a nap instead of summoning help.

“I didn’t call the NYPD because my brain froze,” Aska said Friday on Rikers Island. “I was shivering, I was crying, I just went to my aunt’s. . . . My whole world stopped.”

With the child’s battered body lying on the Nelson St. sidewalk, Aska said he grabbed a nervous bite of food at his aunt’s home and planned to “go to sleep from the anxiety.”

The 17-year-old suspect was instead grabbed by police after Freddy told paramedics that Aska tossed him 50 feet down to the Morris Heights street.

RELATED: TEEN WHO TOSSED 9-YEAR-OLD FROM ROOF INDICTED

“Cas dragged me to the roof and threw me off — I don’t know why,” court papers quoted Freddy as saying.

The critically-injured boy’s father blasted Aska’s story as self-serving.

“This is outrageous, that he would come out with that,” said the elder Fred Martin. “He’s trying to save his soul. I don’t believe that. I’m very sure it is untrue.”

Young Freddie survived despite suffering two collapsed lungs, along with a broken arm, leg and ribs.

After identifying Aska, the boy lost consciousness in the back of an ambulance headed to New York Presbyterian-Columbia Medical Center.

RELATED: TEEN ACCUSED IN BOY'S TRAGIC FALL CALLS IT ACCIDENT

Authorities charged Aska dragged the boy to the roof of the building and tossed him over the side. Witnesses said they heard the child pleading, “Stop! Stop!” before his body hit the street with a thud.

Freddy Martin, 9, remains hospitalized after being tossed from a Bronx rooftop.

According to Aska, Freddy was hanging from the edge of the building by his fingertips for 10 seconds before the fall. His attempt to rescue the dangling youth proved fruitless, insisted Aska, who wouldn’t say how he got to the roof.

“I told him to swing his other hand so I could grab it and pull it up,” Aska said. “But when he swung, he fell. . . . It was unintentional. I did not throw him.”

Aska blamed his four prior arrests, including busts for robbery and menacing, on hanging out with “stupid friends.”

Defense attorney Katherine Dyer described Aska as a church volunteer, and said the fall was “a tragic accident.”

RELATED: BRONX BOY, 9, THROWN FROM BUILDING ROOF

The suspect is jailed without bail pending a March 6 arraignment. He and Freddy were neighbors in the building, and saw each other almost every day.

Freddy was friendly with Aska’s kid brother.

“I hope Freddy gets better, and I hope I can go home,” said Aska, who still hopes to join the Marines before a career in law enforcement. “I didn’t want to hurt anyone. . . . I just want to go home.”

The 5-foot-9, 165-pound suspect initially told cops that he had no part in the plunge. But he insisted the initial false story came because he was “scared.”
If he could speak with Freddy’s family, Aska said, he would tell them how sorry he was.

“I’d apologize, because Freddy got hurt,” he said.
Read more: 'My brain froze:' Bully eats, takes nap instead of calling the police after tossing 9-year-old off building because he was too traumatized - NY Daily News