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Exclusive video shows shocking moment Brooklyn building collapsed
By
David Brand
Published Nov 12, 2026 at 4:33 p.m. ET
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Courtesy of Anderson Velez
By
David Brand
Published Nov 12, 2026 at 4:33 p.m. ET
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Anderson Velez had just arrived in the Bronx for a painting job when he received a frantic phone call from his wife.
She was screaming, he said, begging rescue workers to pull their two sons from the rubble of their Brooklyn apartment building, which had collapsed minutes earlier.
All three survived, but his 9-year-old son was in intensive care after undergoing surgery on his skull and his wife has serious injuries to her ribs, spine and collar bone, he said Thursday.
Velez was left caring for his 2-year-old son. A video recorded by an in-home surveillance camera in the family’s apartment shows the boy being swept up in the rubble as a wall beside him gives way, revealing bright day light outside. He was pulled from the wreckage with scrapes to his forehead and legs.
“I am still in shock,” Velez said in the small lobby of a Brooklyn hotel the city is using to house people displaced by the disaster. “The truth is, I’m trying to be strong for my son, but I feel terrible.”
The shocking video reveals the moment his wife and their two children realized the building was collapsing.
The 9-year-old boy is seen holding a baby bottle and retrieving a gallon of milk from the refrigerator while the 2-year-old plays on the floor of the small third-floor apartment. Moments later, Velez's wife opens a door to the room screaming. The 9-year-old runs to his mother. A candle on a table can be seen visibly shaking and moving across the table’s surface. The younger boy moves slightly away from the wall before it caves in and the video cuts off.
“That movement, in my opinion, saved his life,” Velez said in an interview in Spanish.
Velez said he immediately returned to Brooklyn after his wife’s call.
“Everything was going through my mind. I was thinking about my children, hoping they were okay and that nothing serious had happened to them,” he said. “God heard me because I prayed so much for their health and well-being.”
Velez said he and his family had moved into the $1,500-a-month apartment at 1321 Flatbush Ave. earlier this month, after living in a homeless shelter.
He said his 2-year-old son “was completely covered in dirt” when rescue workers pulled him from the debris pile.
“His ears were full of dirt, his nose, his little mouth, his back — his entire body was covered in dirt,” he said.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said two of the eight people pronounced dead in the catastrophic collapse were kids, and several more were left injured.
Velez said his family knew the two children, who lived one floor below them.
A spokesperson for the Department of Buildings is still investigating the cause of the collapse of the three-story building at 1321 Flatbush Ave. The near-century-old structure crumbled into an adjacent construction site, where the buildings department had previously penalized the development team for cutting corners and ignoring a stop work order.
Mamdani said buildings inspectors would conduct safety enforcement sweeps at more than 100 other projects linked to five companies involved in the botched construction project.
Tagged
brooklyn
housing
new york city
David Brand
David is a reporter covering housing for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 908-310-3960.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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