A chronically broken elevator forced an 81-year-old Brooklyn man to the roof of his apartment building — where he slipped on the ice and suffered a fatal fall, neighbors and sources told The Post.
The man, identified by neighbors as Everet Goldberg, was found unconscious and unresponsive on the roof of 3310 Avenue H in Flatlands shortly before 10 a.m. Saturday, and had been carrying groceries across the roof because the lift on his side of the building was on the fritz.
“People who live on the top floors, the fifth or sixth floor, if you have groceries or something, it’s easier to take the opposite side elevator to the roof, cross over and come down,” neighbor Luis Irizarry said.
“With regular, non-freezing weather, there’s no issue,” said Irizarry, 43. “But with all the cold and the snow from a couple of weeks ago, it’s pretty dangerous up there. All the snow that fell down is now ice.”
Police have not officially released the cause or the circumstances surrounding Goldberg’s death.
In a note to tenants Monday, building management expressed condolences for Goldberg’s death, noting that “it seems most likely that he fell and died due to the extreme cold temperaturs outside.
“We take this opportunity to remind all residents that there is clear signage at the bulkhead level of each stairwell advising that entry to the stairs at the bulkhead level is not permitted,” the note said, “and that no one should be going up on the building roof at any time.”
Sources said Goldberg parked his car outside the building and lugged his groceries up a working elevator on another section of the building.
But he never made it to his door, and instead lay on the roof for hours before he was found.
He then started across the roof to his end of the building with the intention of walking down the staircase and into his apartment.
“There’s no alarms to go onto the roof,” Irizarry said. “We do have a guard who works nights, and I always assumed they did some type of rounds, but clearly not because he was there overnight.”
City building department records show no open violations at the building, but the owners have been hit with more than 100 complaints, with a slew related to the building’s elevator, since 1985.
“The elevator is broken and it does this every other 5 months,” one tenant complained in January 2024. “I’m old. I have medical problems and this is becoming a lot. I can’t walk up the stairs due to my health, and every time someone comes to fix it, it takes 5 months and then it broke down for 2 weeks.”
The record does not identify the tenant, but shows that the elevator was inspected two months later and the problem was apparently fixed.
The building’s landlord could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday.
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