Israeli man crushed to death by elevator in New York

An Israeli man was killed Saturday morning in Brooklyn, New York when he tried to exit the malfunctioning elevator he was riding in and was crushed to death.

Tel Aviv native Eran Modan, 37, had boarded the lift along with 13 other people when it suddenly stopped and its doors opened. Modan tried to climb out onto the lobby but the elevator lurched and his head was pinned between the roof and the floor and he suffered severe head trauma.

“His head was out and his body was in,” Modan’s friend and roommate Mona Zarrin Ramsdell told the New York Daily News.

Ramsdell said he managed to get out of the elevator and rushed to try to resuscitate her friend.

“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,” she added.

The harrowing incident was caught on security video and an initial investigation by authorities revealed that the elevator may have stalled because it was overloaded. The lift’s capacity is 10 people, elevator inspector Scott Schindler told the New York Daily News.

According to the report which cites past records, the elevator has a “notorious” past and several complaints have been filed by users.

“The elevator was deemed ‘unsatisfactory’ after a June 26, 2014 inspection. But Schindler signed off on a satisfactory’ grade July 13, 2015, records show,” the paper reported.

A city official indicated a full investigation would be launched.