Police and emergency responders came to the aid of an unconscious and unresponsive 22-year-old male just after noon today, at 19 9th Avenue in the Meatpacking district. The victim was rushed to Lenox Hill Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
An NYPD spokesman said this afternoon that the victim has not been identified, nor has his cause of death been determined. However NBC News identifies the victim as a construction worker.
DNAInfo reports that the address in question, an active construction site, was formerly occupied by Keith McNally's restaurant Pastis, and is currently being developed into a Restoration Hardware. According to their sources:
"The young man was part of a construction crew that had dug below the foundation of the building to make a wooden support form to shore up the building's facade. The 22-year-old man was inside the wooden structure, sources said, and as he tried to get out of it, dirt fell on him, burying him up to his neck."
DNAInfo also reports that William Gottlieb Real Estate, which owns the property, has "a handful of outstanding DOB violations, according to city records." The most recent was a 2011 violation, for failure to properly maintain building walls.
This incident might mark the second construction-related death in the area, in less than a month.
