The Bobster
Senior News Editor since 2004
https://nypost.com/2018/09/30/man-who-threw-brother-from-roof-had-history-of-mental-illness-mom/
Man who threw brother from roof had history of mental illness: mom
By Kevin Sheehan and Max Jaeger
September 30, 2018 | 3:54pm
The schizophrenic Brooklyn man who went off his meds and fatally tossed his 4-year-old brother off the roof of their apartment building Saturday spent the evening before laughing maniacally for no apparent reason, according the siblings’ grieving mom, who said her slain tot was a “joy” to everyone he met.
A tearful Odessa Frith recounted Sunday how — just hours before her eldest son Shawn Smith, 20, tossed her youngest boy Shimron off the roof of their seven-story apartment building — Shawn was creepily and inexplicably cackling to himself in the family living room.
“I don’t even want to mention him now,” she said at first of her 20-year-old killer son when reporters spoke with her inside her Midwood home.
But then she worked up the courage to continue.
“The night before, [Shawn] was sitting in this chair. He was laughing and laughing. Usually, he was a quiet person,” the mom said.
Around 3 a.m. Saturday, Shawn brought Shimron up to the roof of their Nostrand Avenue building and threw him off the side — then proceeded to brag to cops that “I killed my brother.”
The grieving mother of six, who moved here from Guyana in December, trembled and held her hands in her head as she tearfully eulogized her dead baby boy.
“My baby Shimron was just a joy,” she sobbed. “He touched everyone’s heart. Everyone he met loved him. He was a joy.”
Her next youngest son, who is 5, is having trouble comprehending what happened, the mom said.
“He doesn’t understand. He wants to know when Shimron is coming home,” she said.
Police said Shawn has no criminal record, but his mother described a history of mental problems.
Shawn threatened to kill himself on the same roof in April, and he was hospitalized for three weeks following a mental-health episode in July, the mom said. He went off his prescribed medication just a few days before killing Shimron, she said.
Shawn was awaiting arraignment on murder charges in Brooklyn on Sunday.
Man who threw brother from roof had history of mental illness: mom
By Kevin Sheehan and Max Jaeger
September 30, 2018 | 3:54pm
The schizophrenic Brooklyn man who went off his meds and fatally tossed his 4-year-old brother off the roof of their apartment building Saturday spent the evening before laughing maniacally for no apparent reason, according the siblings’ grieving mom, who said her slain tot was a “joy” to everyone he met.
A tearful Odessa Frith recounted Sunday how — just hours before her eldest son Shawn Smith, 20, tossed her youngest boy Shimron off the roof of their seven-story apartment building — Shawn was creepily and inexplicably cackling to himself in the family living room.
“I don’t even want to mention him now,” she said at first of her 20-year-old killer son when reporters spoke with her inside her Midwood home.
But then she worked up the courage to continue.
“The night before, [Shawn] was sitting in this chair. He was laughing and laughing. Usually, he was a quiet person,” the mom said.
Around 3 a.m. Saturday, Shawn brought Shimron up to the roof of their Nostrand Avenue building and threw him off the side — then proceeded to brag to cops that “I killed my brother.”
The grieving mother of six, who moved here from Guyana in December, trembled and held her hands in her head as she tearfully eulogized her dead baby boy.
“My baby Shimron was just a joy,” she sobbed. “He touched everyone’s heart. Everyone he met loved him. He was a joy.”
Her next youngest son, who is 5, is having trouble comprehending what happened, the mom said.
“He doesn’t understand. He wants to know when Shimron is coming home,” she said.
Police said Shawn has no criminal record, but his mother described a history of mental problems.
Shawn threatened to kill himself on the same roof in April, and he was hospitalized for three weeks following a mental-health episode in July, the mom said. He went off his prescribed medication just a few days before killing Shimron, she said.
Shawn was awaiting arraignment on murder charges in Brooklyn on Sunday.