The body of 45-year-old parking attendant Vizcaino Victoriano was taken from the Icon Garage hours after he had been killed, crushed by a car in what fire officials describe as a tragic accident.
"Car fell off the lift onto a parking lot attendant," FDNY Batallion Chief David Simms said. "It is still being investigated by the police department."
Co-workers were immediately interviewed by police, trying to determine the exact cause of the accident.
Others stood silent, with looks of disbelief.
This as news spread quickly among those who regularly park in this garage on Barclay Street just off of Church Street.
"It's tragic, it's tragic," said Faisal Choudhury, a driver.
Kim Laurie who works across the street also parked there.
"He goes out of his way to get my car, even though I don't give him fair warning because it's parked God knows where. I'm shocked, just really shocked. And I guess he was going to breakfast when I saw him leave this morning," Laurie said.
But later Laurie would learn the unthinkable.
"Before I knew it was my car, I was stunned to begin with, now I don't even know what to say. This is my car?" Laurie said.
She spoke with police, before her car was driven from the building with the back window shattered.
The car, fire officials tell Eyewitness News had been on the upper deck of a lift.
"The car rolled off the lift and right on top of him," Simms said.
Gerard Marini usually parks his car there, but the lot was full.
He went to another nearby garage and heard the tragic news.
"A woman had told me that he had been killed," Marini said.
Distraught family members of Victoriano were rushed into a building over the garage to learn more of what happened and later left in several cars.
Other daily customers like Cesar Callan who shares the victim's Hispanic heritage say he will miss him greatly.
"We'd talk in Spanish. He was from the Dominican Republic and we would fool around. It's just a shame," Callan said.
---
