A malfunctioning elevator in a posh New York City apartment building killed a man in a gruesome way, as other residents watched in horror.
Video of the graphic incident, captured by the building’s security cameras on Thursday morning, shows one person getting out of the elevator. When another passenger tries to follow, the elevator plummets down, shearing him in half and crushing his body against the shaft.Samuel Waisbren, 30, was pronounced dead at the scene.
“The elevator took him down,” one of the people who witnessed the event told the New York Daily News. “It’s awful. It was disgusting.”
Five other passengers were still on board the runaway elevator, and had to be rescued by firefighters.
“Some people were left on the car after the car moved down to the basement,” said FDNY Chief Anthony Arpaia, adding the firefighters “had to work pretty hard” to get to them and recover Waisbren’s remains.
Weisbren had moved to New York from Milwaukee, Wisconsin several years ago, and had complained to his parents about the elevators in the building where a one-bedroom apartment rents for about $3,600 a month.
“My feeling about New York is you pay a bazillion dollars for rent, the least they could do is provide safety,” his father, Dr. Charles Waisbren, told the Daily News by phone.
Other residents told the local media that the building has had elevator safety issues in the past. It was fined nearly $1,300 in May for an elevator violation. The city’s Buildings Department is now leading the investigation to determine what caused the fatal incident.
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