The 9-year-old, who looks like a “white Hispanic” (his grandfather Juan speaks only Spanish) remained conscious long enough to give the name of the person who threw him off the roof. Otherwise the cops might have thought that the kid fell off the fire escape accidentally...unless a neighbor had seen what happened and was brave enough to tell the police. If the fall had killed the kid, as it easily could have, the perpetrator might have gotten away undetected.
Do we know if the boy is still alive?
This does raise a very valid question of how much crime is ‘gotten away with’ because the victim dies and everyone is too afraid to ‘snitch.’