Man trying to retrieve phone crushed to death by elevator Published Crime Scene File Photo. NEW YORK - Officials say a New York City building worker was fatally crushed by elevator machinery while trying to retrieve a cell phone that had apparently fallen down the shaft. Police say Kennie Lessie died Friday afternoon in a building on Parkside Avenue in the Prospect-Lefferts Gardens section of Brooklyn. He was 64 and an assistant superintendent in the six-story apartment house. According to police and the Department of Buildings, Lessie and a tenant went into the basement elevator room to search for a phone, and Lessie got caught in moving ropes and machinery as the elevator moved among floors.