Elevator repairman dies in fall in Atlantic City building

The job called for routine elevator maintenance at the New York Avenue Apartments, a 15-story building of elderly and disabled residents in Atlantic City.

A crew arrived Friday morning: Brian Jacome, 25, and a co-worker, his brother, police said.

Then, just after 10 a.m., something terrible happened.

A 911 call came. Someone, dispatchers learned, had fallen down the elevator shaft.

Police and paramedics rushed to the building, but it was already too late. Jacome was dead.

Police said Jacome, of the Bronx, was found on the second-floor elevator opening in the shaft, but that it was unclear why he had fallen or from what floor.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was also investigating but declined to comment on the details.

The incident rattled residents inside the 150-unit building, where counselors were being summoned Friday.

"There's people here that are very upset," said Suzanne Sigmund, senior vice president of Community Realty Management, which manages the building. "Including residents and employees."

The building, she said, contracts with United States Elevators, Inc., a company based out of Fairfield in North Jersey that inspects the two elevators at least once a year.

A man who answered the phone at the company declined to give his name but called Jacome's death "a tragedy - a horrible accident." He said the company has existed for about a decade and does work across the state.

A search of the company's name on OSHA's website revealed no prior violations.

Jacome's family members, some of whom police said arrived at the scene as his body was being taken away, could not be reached Friday.

But on Facebook, where he listed United States Elevators as his place of employment, Jacome wrote about work in a Jan. 3 post.

"Only the top of the top runts in my company get to work today," he wrote, adding a smiley face.

"This runt gets to work in Atlantic city."