How exactly does this happen?

From NBC:

Eight families have lost their homes after an apartment building in the Bronx partially collapsed, sending several tons of bricks cascading onto the ground.

Chopper 4 was overhead as firefighters responded to the Fteley Avenue building Soundview Thursday evening, with bricks and debris strewn on the sidewalk and on the street. Bricks fell with enough force to mangle the front gate and cave in the awning, with some hanging precariously over the entrance.

No one was hurt in the collapse, and the cause is under investigation. FDNY officials on scene said an occupant started some repair work but "it just looked like the age of the building, maybe weather."

Maspeth developer attacks police

From the Daily News:

Prosecutors have charged a Queens homeowner with hurling a brick at a cop during a brawl over renovation permits, authorities said Wednesday.

Edward Wysk, 51, allegedly struck NYPD Officer Randy Paulsaint with the brick on Maspeth Ave. near 59th St. in Maspeth around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Wysk is also accused of assaulting Paulsaint’s partner and a city Department of Environmental Protection agent who was issuing a stop-work order on his home because he didn’t have the proper paperwork to show that asbestos had been removed from the building.

Wysk was in the middle of gutting and renovating the Maspeth property when DEP Agent Michael Lateef arrived and told him he had to shut down over the paperwork issue.

Outraged, Wysk ripped the stop-work order and Lateef’s credentials from his hands and threw them on the ground, according to prosecutors. When Lateef called police, Wysk smashed the agent’s phone against a wall, authorities said.

When Officer Paulsaint and his partner, Officer Matthew Portales, arrived and approached the front door, Wysk allegedly hurled a brick from inside the home.

The flying brick crashed through a window and struck Paulsaint in the head. Portales ran in to arrest Wysk and injured his arm in the scuffle.

Responding officers took Wysk into custody along with two construction workers who were initially thought to be the brick tossers. The workers were questioned and released without charges, officials said.

Pedestrians lucky to escape debris from rooftop accident

DNA Info/Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska

From DNA Info:

A car crashed into a the wall of a rooftop parking lot on Austin Street Sunday evening, ripping a hole in it and sending dozens of bricks falling onto a busy sidewalk Sunday evening, officials and witnesses said.

The incident occurred just after 8 p.m. atop a two-story commercial building housing several businesses, including Exo Cafe, a Lucille Roberts gym and PM Pediatrics.

Sources at the scene said that the valet accidentally hit the gas instead of the break, causing the car to smash into the wall.

A representative for the parking lot declined to comment.

No one was injured in the crash and the driver refused medical attention, but the falling bricks damaged three cars, according to fire and police officials.

Falling bricks kill a baby

From the Daily News:

An adorable 2-year-old girl who was hit when bricks rained down from a crumbling Upper West side building died Monday, police sources said.

Greta Greene was sitting with her grandmother when she was struck by the terra-cotta bricks that fell from the 8th floor of 305 West End Ave. Sunday, the sources said.

The Esplanade was hit with two Department of Building complaints right after the incident. Department of Building inspectors said the owner failed "to maintain the property in safe and code-compliant manner."

Wind 1, Window 0

From the NY Post:

Violent gusts of wind yesterday blew out windows from the 52nd floor of a luxury apartment building in Midtown, sending glass and debris raining onto the street.

The window, about 30 by 30 feet, crashed to the ground at 4:25 p.m. from 117 East 57th Street. Magician David Copperfield lives in the building but in another apartment.

No one was hurt in the building or on the ground.

About an hour earlier, bricks fell from the roof of a Harlem apartment building.

Officials were trying to determine if the wind -- which reached as high as 60 mph -- caused the incident.

Have there been increased incidents of bricks and windows committing suicide?

Also, a tree limb fell on a man's shoulder in Flushing, Queens, at around 1:10 p.m. He was taken to New York Hospital of Queens in stable condition.