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25 Years Ago, Man Fell Down Same Coney Island Elevator That Claimed Baby's Life
By
Gaby Del Valle
Published Oct 15, 2016
Modified Oct 15, 2016
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By
Gaby Del Valle
Published Oct 15, 2016
Modified Oct 15, 2016
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The six-month old infant who fell to her death down an elevator shaft at a Coney Island apartment complex on Thursday isn't the first person to have tragically died in the building's elevator.
In 1991, 24-year-old tenant Chandler Johnson bumped against an elevator door on the 15th floor of the Sea Rise complex in Coney Island. The doors opened into an empty shaft and he fell.
"These elevators are broken every other day," tenant Barbara Maxwell told the Daily News after Johnson's death.
25 years later, residents are shocked the same accident happened again. On Thursday, six-month-old Areej Ali's mother, 21-year-old Aber Al-Rahabi was waiting for the elevator on the 23rd floor of the building with Ali, who was in a stroller. When the doors opened, Al-Rahabi stepped forward before realizing the elevator wasn't there, but Ali had already fallen down the elevator shaft. She fell eight stories and landed on top of the elevator.
"I was livid," Johnson's cousin Deatrice Griffin told the News after hearing about Ali's death. "The same exact accident happened in the same complex? It's unjustifiable." Griffin said that if the building's elevator problems had been fixed after her cousin's death in 1991, Ali's death "wouldn't have happened."
According to the News, there have been 147 elevator violations at the Sea Rise complex since Johnson's death. The building, which is managed by Grenadier Realty, currently has 64 open violations, 5 of which are regarding the building's elevators. On September 30th, a tenant complained that the building's elevators weren't working.
On Wednesday and Thursday, the elevator was being repaired by Centennial Elevator, which has serviced the complex since 2009. Officials could not confirm what the mechanic was doing at the time of Ali's death, and the city is investigating whether "out of service" signs were posted on the building's elevators as is required. Tenants told the News they were not—building officials say the signs were posed in the lobby.
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areej ali
chandler johnson
coney island
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grenadier realty
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