Man Found Dead in Downtown Elevator Shaft

A man was crushed to death overnight in the elevator shaft of a downtown parking garage, D.C. officials said this morning. The man has not yet been identified. He was not wearing a garage uniform, and D.C. fire department spokesman Alan Etter said it was not known if he was an employee or patron of the garage.

Etter said the death was discovered around 5 a.m., when employees at the InterPark garage at the corner of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW were preparing to open the garage for the day. The man's body was crushed under a platform that garage employees use to move from floor to floor.

The garage is located a block west of the White House, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. It is next to the Mills Building, a private office building at 1700 Pennsylvania Ave. that houses the law firms of King & Spalding and Ivins, Phillips & Barker, among other tenants.

The garage was closed this morning as rescue crews worked to remove the body from the elevator shaft. All lanes of 17th Street were open, but one lane of Pennsylvania Avenue was closed to accommodate emergency vehicles, Etter said.