A 70-year-old Brooklyn woman, described as “a grandmother to everybody” in her building, died yesterday when she was crushed by an elevator.
Ernestine Chapman somehow was able to open the elevator door on the sixth floor of her building at 12421 Flatlands Ave. even though the elevator was not there, police said.
The elevator was coming up at the time, and she was caught between the roof of the elevator and the door.
Her longtime friend Regina Watkins, who lives on the same floor, walked out of her apartment into a nightmare scene.
“Her body was crushed,” Watkins. “The firemen were trying to work on her – it was horrific.
“When they took her out, she was dead.”
Watkins, 31, described Chapman as “a beautiful lady” who was close to her many nieces and nephews.
“I’ve known her since I was little.
“She was like a grandma to everyone,” Watkins said.
Watkins, as well as other several residents of the eight-story building in the Fairfield Towers complex, said the elevators have been breaking down constantly for the past several years.
“Every time they send a mechanic, they mess it up,” said James Bryant, 67.
“That elevator was jerking up and down since Thursday.”
The building management could not be reached for comment.