An illegally installed hoist collapsed and killed a man at an East Flatbush food market on Nostrand Avenue on April 2.
Police said they received a call at 11:51 am that a freight elevator had collapsed on top of a man delivering food to the basement of KP Farm Market between Newkirk and Foster avenues. The victim, Youngkil Sim of Queens, was rushed to Kings County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
But a preliminary investigation by the Department of Buildings found that the structure that fell was actually a makeshift hoist. Two workers were using the device to transfer goods between the first floor and the basement when its platform fell and hit Sim, who had inadvertently walked underneath, said a department spokeswoman.
The hoist was illegally installed and lacked safeguards, and the Department of Buildings has ordered the building owner to stop using it, also according to the spokeswoman.
The investigation by police and the buildings department is ongoing, but police said the fall of the structure itself appeared to be an accident.
“It looks accidental in nature,” said a spokesman.
The Department of Buildings website lists Nostrand Realty Group, LLC, as the property’s owner.
Neigther Nostrand Realty Group, LLC or KP Farm Market could not be reached for comment.
The Department of Buildings will take further actions after the investigation, said the department spokeswoman.
