A man in New York who saved a woman from a broken elevator was crushed to death just moments before midnight on New Year's Eve.
Stephen Hewett-Brown, 25, was riding an elevator in downtown Manhattan when it malfunctioned, ABC News reports.
He pushed a woman out of it onto one of the floors before getting pinned between the elevator car and the shaft as he tried to escape himself, witnesses told ABC News.
He wished onlookers a Happy New Year before he died from his injuries.
"He was saying, 'I can't breathe'. I tried to pull him up, but he said, 'Leave me here, leave me here'," Manuel Coronado told the New York Daily News.
The New York Police Department said Hewett-Brown was unconscious and had severe body trauma by the time officers arrived shortly after midnight.
Hewett-Brown's death follows a series of complaints about the Broome St high-rise's three elevators, records from the city's Building Department show.
They say a violation notice concerning the up-and-down lights was unresolved as of Thursday, ABC reports.
The Buildings Department was investigating the incident.
A friend of Hewett-Brown's, Ejiro Omenih, told WABC-TV that he was an aspiring musician who played piano and performed hip-hop and soul.
"I feel that that alone shows his character," he said.
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