The NYPD confirmed a 6-year-old boy has fallen down an elevator shaft of a building in the Concourse section of The Bronx and remains in critical condition.

 

The incident happened at 12.35 p.m. on Thursday, April 21, at 1235 Grand Concourse, a multiple, residential Co-op building, in the Concourse neighborhood, comprising 130 residential units. The boy was transported to Harlem Hospital, where he is being treated.

 

Officials from both the NYPD and New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) were at the scene.

 

According to DOB records, there are 79 complaints, 79 DOB violations, including 46 OATH / ECB violations filed in respect of this building.

 

ECB/OATH violations are issued when a property is not in compliance with construction codes or zoning resolutions as set out by the New York city construction codes or zoning resolution.

 

According to DOB records, 42 violations have been recorded to date related to elevator maintenance. The most recent elevator inspection was on Oct. 27, 2021 where no violation was found.

Norwood News contacted DOB for further information about the various elevator violations and were advised that there are three “active” violations which, according to DOB, are “non-hazardous related defects found during routine elevator inspections conducted by a private elevator inspector.”

 

DOB officials said such violations were entered into the DOB system by the private elevator inspector to indicate that the defects needed to be corrected but were not classified as hazardous issues.

 

According to DOB, had a hazardous violation been identified by a private elevator inspector during such routine inspections, the inspector would have been required to notify DOB immediately for further action. According to DOB, that did not happen for any of the three active violations.

 

Separate from elevator violations, a violation for failure to certify a correction of a Class 1 type violation also exists in respect of the property, and civil penalties are due according to DOB. A class 1 type violation is a condition that severely affects life, health, safety, property, the public interest, or a significant number of persons, and warrants immediate corrective action.

 

We asked DOB what this class 1 violation related to, and were told it stemmed from failure to maintain an exterior building facade and appurtenances. Specifically, it related to cracked window sills, a flower pot on a window sill, damaged mortar joints, spalled bricks, objects in the fire escape, and damage.

 

DOB officials provided a further update on the incident relating to the child’s fall later on Thursday, saying, “Elevator inspectors are currently on the scene at 1245 Grand Concourse, investigating after a child was found on top of one of the elevator cars in the shaft way.”

 

They continued, “We have been informed by first responders that the child was transported to a local area hospital in critical conditions. Our inspectors are actively looking into whether there are any noncompliant conditions at the doors leading into the shaft way, in order to determine how the child gained access.”

 

Meanwhile, according to New York City Department of Finance records, the building is owned by 1235 LLC, with an address at 5600 A Broadway, Bronx, NY 10463, in the Kingsbridge section of the borough. The property was built in 1929 and purchased by 1235 LLC in May 2016 from Dayanand and Shamdai Lalbihari of South Ozone Park, NY and Bronx, NY respectively.

 

According to New York State Department of State Division of Corporations records, the Bronx-based 1235 LLC entity is listed under Westchester County, rather than Bronx County on the department’s website.

 

Norwood News has queried this anomaly with the Department of State, and will update this story upon receipt of any feedback.

A police detective later provided an overview of the situation, saying, “He [the injured child] didn’t come out of the building, so they tracked him through the cameras. He comes out of his apartment, there’s a staircase right by his apartment… the grandfather realizes that the child got out of the apartment, he hears the door slam.”

 

The detective continued, “They come out and they try to look for him, but they don’t know where he went. He went up the stairs. Once he got to the sixth floor, he crossed over to another staircase that goes up to the roof. He gets through that door and makes his way onto the roof. There is an elevator room on top of the roof over the elevator shaft. He gets in through that door and then there’s sort of a fire escape-type landing, but there’s a space about this big (gestures to demonstrate a 7 to 10 inch opening) against the wall where the wheel turns, and that looks like where he fell through.”

 

Asked how far he fell, the detective said, “It’s unknown… I can’t speak for the hospital, but I think had he [had] fallen the full six stories. I don’t think it would have been… It’s unknown where the elevator was. What I was trying to say was if the elevator was all the way down, it would have been a lot worse. He is at the hospital……skull fractures. There was a substantial amount of blood on top, he landed on top of the elevator.”

 

The detective concluded, “The fire department was the one that pulled him out of the elevator. Right now, the elevator is in the basement, so the top of the elevator is on the first-floor.”

 

Asked who found the child, and how he was found, the detective said, “I think they heard rumbling. Somebody heard rumbling.”

The detective was then asked if both grandparents were home at the time. “It’s grandpa. He’s 62, and a home attendant,” the detective said. It was confirmed that the child turned six on Feb. 18.

 

Asked if it seemed like the elevator had malfunctioned, the detective said, “He wound up on the roof. He made his way up to the roof. He got himself into the elevator shaft.”

 

When asked if the elevator shaft was not supposed to have been closed, the detective said, “Well, the Department of Buildings is here. They’re waiting for the elevator company to come so they can do an inspection, but it looks like on top of the elevator shaft, it’s a floor that’s sort of like a fire escape with metal slats, and there’s a space not big enough for an adult but a child can slip through, and they’re thinking that because there’s fingerprints on the shaft, there’s a slat and little, tiny fingers.”

Asked given the amount of blood, was it likely the elevator was on one of the lower floors, the detective said, “He lives on the first floor. I was inside the apartment and there were a substantial amount of locks. The apartment door……there were a lot more locks then… there were at least two chains on the door and one of them was about this high (demonstrates about 6 feet).”

 

The detective added that the child’s mother was working at the time of the accident occurred.

 

Asked if anyone in the building could access the roof, the detective said, “Those doors…..it looks like they’re supposed to be locked… The doors, you’re not supposed to go through there – I mean from floor to ceiling. It’s supposed to be locked. I’m imagining it must have been open. He makes his way up to the roof and he fell down the elevator shaft on this side of the building.”

The detective added, “So, then there’s like a little room on the roof where all of the elevator mechanics are in there. There’s four metal slats and then there’s like a little door, a half door, and he went through that half door and that’s the elevator room with, like, a fire escape-type door, and then you see the mechanism for the elevator and against the wall, there’s a gap about this big and you see little fingerprints on the dust and stuff, and that’s it.”

 

Asked if there were surveillance cameras inside the building, the detective said, “There are cameras inside the building. That’s how they were able to track him. The two adults that were inside the apartment, they were literally seconds behind him, but they didn’t know where he was… The way the video looks, a couple of seconds after the kid comes out the door, they were looking for him.”

 

Later, Norwood News spoke to some local residents about the accident. Mabel Rodriguez said, “Oh my God! I’m very spiritual and I like to pray, so the first thing I said was, ‘Oh my Lord, I hope he’s better and nothing really bad happened to him,’ you know? But I was really in shock.”