Two boys were injured last night when a cinderblock wall in their Brooklyn back yard collapsed on them, authorities and family members said.
The boys, cousins William Arango, 11, and Nathyiz Figueroa, 10, were playing behind their Willoughby Avenue home in Bushwick about 7 p.m. when they lost their ball over the wall.
When they went to retrieve the ball, they came into contact with the 7-foot wall, which divides their yard from the house next door.
Their uncle, Tony Martinez, was in front of the house when another cousin of the boys ran screaming to him.
“He said the wall fell onto them,” Martinez said. “We ran to the back to get him out, but the wall was too heavy to lift.
“He was purple … he wasn’t moving,” Martinez said of his nephew, William.
“He looked like he was dying,” said William’s 14-year-old cousin, Tabitha Figueroa. “His father was crying and trying to give him mouth-to-mouth.”
Relatives said William was in critical condition, while Nathyiz, who suffered a head injury, was stable.
The Department of Buildings said it is probing the cause of the collapse.