Falling elevator crushes college athlete inside apartment building, GA officials say
UPDATE: Champion Prep Academy has identified the student who died last week in an elevator accident in Atlanta as Jaumarcus McFarland of Missouri.
Sean Tarrant, head football coach at Champion Prep Academy, described the 18-year-old as “amazing” and “self-motivated.”
“He was a tough cookie!” Tarrant told McClatchy News in a statement. “Besides all of that, Jaumarcus had a smile that would brighten up the world. It was a pleasure coaching this young man. All his fellow teammates loved him and looked to him for his leadership and encouragement.
The teen’s family has since retained The Cochran Firm to investigate the prep academy and owners of the apartment building.
“This family obviously deserves answers and certainly deserves justice if there is wrongdoing,” senior attorney Sam Starks said at a news conference Tuesday. “And it certainly appears that Jaumarcus’ death was unnecessary and preventable.”
ORIGINAL:
A college athlete was crushed to death by a falling elevator at an apartment building in northeast Atlanta, according to multiple outlets.
Fire and rescue crews responded to reports of an elevator incident at 444 Highland Ave. around 3 p.m. Tuesday, WSB-TV reported, citing the Atlanta Fire Department. There, crews found a man in his early 20’s pinned in the elevator shaft.
McClatchy News reached out to the Atlanta Fire Department on Wednesday and is awaiting a response.
Officials said the car “collapsed” while the man was on it, trapping him between the second and third floors, according to WXIA. It took crews nearly an hour to extricate him, and officials said his pulse was faint.
The man was taken to a nearby hospital where he suffered cardiac arrest and died, the news station reported, citing fire officials. No other injuries were reported.
Leadership at the Champion Prep Academy confirmed the man was one of their students, according to WGCL. The academy, which describes itself as a “rigorous post-graduate academic-athletic program” bridging the gap for student-athletes working toward a college degree, said the student’s family would fly in from out of state.
At least two other players boarded the elevator with the victim Tuesday when it began “free falling,” a witness told WGCL. They were able to make it off safely, but the other player did not.
“I ain’t even got the words,” one of the student’s teammates told WGCL. “His feet were moving at first. Then it stopped. He went unconscious.”
An official with the Georgia insurance commissioner’s office told WXIA that the apartment building, which is a mixed-use property, only has one elevator — that was due for an inspection in August 2020.
Byron Grove, a teammate who lives in the high-rise, said there have been ongoing complaints about the building’s condition, including its faulty elevators.
“We knew something like this was going to happen one day,” Grove told WSB-TV. “We didn’t know it was going to take one of our teammate’s lives.”
Property manager Nathan Phillips called the incident a “horrible tragedy” but said the elevator was at max capacity when it collapsed Tuesday. As many as 16 athletes were inside, Phillips told WAGA in a statement.
“What we can say is the weight capacity of the elevator was 3000 lbs. — but the 16 young athletes who were inside the elevator when this occurred pushed that limit to nearly 4000 lbs,” he said. “Unfortunately, this appears to be what started the domino effect of events leading to the unfortunate death of this young man. This is a horrible tragedy, and it deeply saddens us all that this has happened.”
The elevator will remain closed, fire officials said, until an inspector can determine the cause of Tuesday’s incident.
This story was originally published September 1, 2021 at 2:48 PM with the headline "Falling elevator crushes college athlete inside apartment building, GA officials say."