By Adam Pincus
The fatal fall appeared to be an accident but a final determination will be made after a full autopsy, including a toxicology examination that tests for alcohol, is made on the men, a spokesman for the Queens district attorney said.It was the second fatal accident in an elevator in five years in the sprawling complex of 5,000 units distributed among 18-story buildings, and one of two in the city in 48 hours.The bodies of Julian Jones, 25, of 173rd Street in Jamaica and Leslie Jones Jr., 23, of Cypress Hills, Brooklyn, were discovered Sunday at about 5:17 p.m. in an elevator shaft at the La France building at 96-04 57th Ave., police said.The two men shared the same father but had different mothers and were very close, said Renee Jones, Julian's mother.”They were probably horsing around, like brothers do,” she said. She had not spoken to anyone at the building management concerning the elevator doors a day after they died.”I didn't speak to anybody because I am trying to get my baby in the ground and make peace with God and the family.”The men had been fighting in an elevator from elevator shaft No. 2 on the way up to the 11th floor, an official from the Forest Hills management company said. Mid-State Management Corporation Vice President Charles Mehlman said the pair exited on the 11th floor, continued fighting and during that struggle pushed the doors off its tracks from elevator shaft No. 3 and plunged down. “This is a terrible tragedy and we feel for the family,” he said. DA spokesman Kevin Ryan said the incident was still under investigation.”We will see what the results of the medical examiner's autopsy are,” which includes further examination of the bodies, he said. The results could takes weeks, he said.A Department of Buildings spokeswoman said the doors had a safety feature known as a Z-bar which is intended to prevent the doors from opening accidentally, although the building is not required to have it.Mehlman said the Z-bars were added to elevator doors following the death on June 8, 2001 of Patrick Fanor, 14, who plunged seven floors after repeatedly charging and finally pushing open the doors on the 10th floor of a different Lefrak City building.Longtime resident Jim Galloway said he has been asking for new elevators for years because of complaints in service.”We did a petition drive in mid-January for new elevators,” he said.The Jones brothers fell only a day after a Brooklyn man was killed when he fell down an elevator shaft in Chelsea after a fight.Reach reporter Adam Pincus by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
