Man Falls to Death From Stalled Elevator

CENTURY CITY — A man slipped and fell 140 feet to his death after he apparently pried open the doors of an elevator that had become stuck between floors in a high-rise building, police said Wednesday.

Investigators said the accident probably occurred about 4 p.m. Tuesday, but the body of the man, whose identity was not released, was not found until Wednesday morning.

Police said the man was a courier who had made a pickup at an office on one of the upper floors of the building at 1840 Century Park East. On the way back down, the elevator in which he was riding became stuck between the eighth and ninth floors.

The man called building security personnel, who told him to wait in the elevator until help arrived. But the man apparently pried open the doors. Officers said he slipped and fell to his death, probably while trying to crawl from the elevator to a space above the ceiling of the eighth floor.

Maintenance personnel responding to the stuck elevator found the doors pried open. Seeing no sign of the man, they repaired the elevator and put it back in service. At 10 a.m. Wednesday, while doing a routine check in the elevator pit, a maintenance worker found the man’s body.