Man Killed in Elevator Hailed as a Hero

A 25-year-old man in Manhattan was crushed to death in an elevator accident Thursday night, but he managed to save a woman's life before dying, reports the New York Daily News. Investigators say the man was riding the elevator in an apartment building on the Lower East Side when it malfunctioned. The lift apparently was stalled on the third floor "when it buckled and began to descend," according to NBC New York. The victim, identified as Stephen Hewett-Brown, then pushed a 43-year-old woman to safety, says a bystander.

"The elevator started going down and he pushed her out,” the man tells the Daily News. “He said, ‘Happy New Year’ and pushed her out.” (The accident occurred close to midnight.) Another person tells CBS New York that "the elevator started falling really, really slow." She says when the victim "stepped out, the elevator just came down and it just crushed him.” Bystanders tried unsuccessfully to free him, and Hewett-Brown was later pronounced dead at the scene. The building has a history of elevator service complaints, reports NBC and CBS. (Sunday saw another gruesome elevator accident on board a cruise ship.)