NYC parking garage collapse fatality identified as 'long-time' employee

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NYC parking garage 'structural' collapse injures 5, kills 1

Rescue officials arrive on scene to asses the damage of Tuesday afternoon's dramatic collapse. Credits: Ben Von Klemperer via Storyful, New York City Mayor's Office, and WNYW

The person who died this week after a parking garage suddenly collapsed in New York City has been identified as one of the facility’s "long-time employees." 

In a statement to Fox News Digital, the New York City Police Department said the victim was 59-year-old Willis Moore of Queens. 

"We are devastated at the loss of one of our long-time employees and our thoughts are with his family and those who were injured in the accident," Jeremy Zweig, a spokesman for Enterprise Ann Parking – which operated the garage in lower Manhattan -- told The Associated Press. 

The company reportedly added that it is cooperating with investigators into how the structure crumbled on Tuesday, injuring five others as well. 

NYC PARKING GARAGE THAT COLLAPSED HAD ACTIVE VIOLATIONS 

Cars are seen at the collapse of a parking garage in the Financial District of New York City on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. (Tom Kaminski/WCBS 880 News/AP)

The medical examiner’s office told the AP that Moore's death was accidental and that he suffered "blunt force trauma of head, torso, and extremities." 

The office did not immediately respond Friday to a request from Fox News Digital for comment. 

Adam Cohen, who lives near the parking garage, told the AP he regularly saw Moore when he went by the structure to walk his daughters to school. He has parked his vehicle at the garage for more than a decade. He remembers waving to Moore, the garage manager, on Tuesday morning, hours before the tragedy. 

"I know Willis was out around helping people with their cars," he said. 

NYC PARKING GARAGE COLLAPSE LEAVES 1 DEAD, SEVERAL INJURED 

Cars are seen piled on top of each other at the scene of a partial collapse of a parking garage in the Financial District of New York, Tuesday, April 18, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Demolition work is ongoing to sift through the rubble at the site Friday. 

At a press conference Tuesday, NYC Department of Buildings Acting Commissioner Kazimir Vilenchik described how drone footage showed how the four-story building on Ann Street, between Nassau Street and William Street, "all the way pancaked, collapsed all the way to the cellar floor."  

He acknowledged an active violation on the building dated to 2003. The commissioner said an application was filed in 2010 but did not indicate whether the violation was corrected. There are some active permits on the building, one related to electrical work on the premise, Vilenchik added, promising more details at a later time. 

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A car is removed from the parking garage on Wednesday, following the collapse in New York City the day before. (AP/Yuki Iwamura)

"Our engineers deployed and [are] currently checking adjoining buildings and observing footage from drone pictures to identify possible reason for [the] collapse," he said. "We are going to continuously review and research property profiles to understand history of the building, certificate of occupancy, and all other records and I will update this information."  

NYC Department of Buildings records show that the parking garage located at 57 Ann Street had 19 violations that had been completed or defaulted on and another four that remained open, requiring a certificate of correction. WABC reported that the same parking garage, owned by 57 Ann Street Realty Association, based in Great Neck, New York, had 64 violations with the Department of Buildings dating back to 1976. 

Fox News’ Danielle Wallace and The Associated Press contributed to this report.