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[UPDATE] Man Dies After Being Crushed By Elevator In Williamsburg
By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 2, 2015
Modified Oct 2, 2015
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By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 2, 2015
Modified Oct 2, 2015
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A man was pronounced dead early this morning after apparently being crushed by a "malfunctioning" elevator in a Williamsburg apartment building
Police responded to a 911 call at 156 Hope Street around 4:18 a.m. and found a 37-year-old man, "unconscious and unresponsive, with trauma to the head and torso." Responding EMS pronounced him dead at the scene. According to ABC 7, "he became trapped between the elevator and the floor, during an apparent malfunction."
The location is the luxury apartment rental building The Espoir. The Post reports, "A source said the elevator malfunctioned and somehow crushed the man... The victim didn’t live at Espoir Luxury Rentals, which features a gym, roof deck and a game room."
Update: The Daily News has more details of the tragedy: The victim and his roommate had entered the elevator, but then it plunged with the doors open.
"He got scared and tried to jump out when it dropped," said roommate and close friend Mona Zarrin Ramshell.
The victim's head was caught between the elevator and lobby floor when the elevator suddenly shot upwards mid-leap.
"The elevator just dropped and then shoots up," Ramshell said, tears streaming down her cheeks. "His head was out and his body was in."
Ramshell was able to escape the elevator through a hatch in the bottom. She ran up to the lobby and started giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to her roommate.
"I got up to him and it looked like he was dead," she said.
"I felt his pulse stop and he was dead. I was telling him, 'I love you, baby. You'll be OK.' I started singing to him."
Ramshell said that he was revived at one point, opening an eye, but then "I could just feel his energy die."
She said that the building has notoriously troubled elevators. Another resident agreed, telling DNAinfo, "It's always made this weird noise, like a rattling. They came to fix it maybe a month ago. They'd come and fix it and it'd break again."
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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