Staten Island Residents: Building Where Teen Fell Down Elevator Shaft Is Popular Hangout
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A teenager is dead after falling down an elevator shaft on Staten Island.
Investigators believe 16-year-old Marcos Castillo was hanging out with friends inside the former Staten Island Hospital building at 100 Castleton Ave. when he fell around 5 p.m. on Friday.
Castillo was taken to Richmond University Medical Center with head trauma, and was later pronounced dead.
The building has been abandoned for 36 years, officials said.
But Tompkinsville residents told 1010 WINS' Roger Stern that the seven-story building has been a hangout for teens for years.
"The kids are in here all the time; they hang out, they party and everything in there. They need security here 24 hours, not just one guy," said Donald Brown.
FDNY Battalion Chief James Boylan said when emergency responders arrived on the scene, there were signs of forced entry.
"It was sealed from the first floor, but it appears as though some people had breached one side of the building to get in," he said.
The building closed down in 1979. Graffiti now covers the exterior, all of the windows are broken, and the building is shrouded in weeds and overgrowth.
