A state agency has levied a $5,000 fine against the property management company for the apartment building where a teenager was killed in a tragic elevator accident last month.
According to records obtained from Georgia’s Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and Fire Safety (OCI), 18-year-old JauMarcus McFarland died of cardiac arrest Aug. 31 after he was pinned by an elevator that was slowly descending from the building’s third floor.
Through an open records request, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution received nearly 200 electronic OCI files, including documents, emails, photos and video related to the incident.
An accident report included in the files describes the deadly ordeal minute by harrowing minute, though some details have been disputed by McFarland’s family.
The OCI records also include a citation to property manager Sohanna Management for $5,000, the maximum fine possible for “failing to notify the Chief Inspector of an accident which involved death,” according to Georgia law. They also show that the elevators at 444 Highland were overdue for an inspection, which must be requested by the property owner or manager.
McFarland, who was from Missouri and played football at Champion Prep Academy, was among a group of players who boarded the elevator in the building where many members of the team lived. According to OCI records, 16 people got into the elevator. Together, the teammates weighed about 4,000 pounds, well above the elevator’s 3,000-pound posted weight limit, the report said.
However, attorneys for McFarland’s family told reporters during a news conference Sept. 7 that the elevator should have been able to hold the players. They also questioned the accuracy of the number of people purported to be on the elevator in the state’s records.
“The law is clear. You can have up to 18 people on the elevator and it wasn’t even close to that,” attorney Shean Williams said at the news conference. “This happened because just straight arrogance neglect.”
Just after 2:40 p.m. that day, surveillance footage shows the doors to the elevator open on the third floor while it “was in a slow decline mode,” according to the report. Three players were able to jump off, and McFarland tried to follow them as the elevator descended halfway below the third-floor level.
“On the video, it appears his teammates attempted to help pull him back, but he unfortunately became pinned by the elevator, which then stopped,” the report said.
At the time, McFarland remained alert. The report does not say when he lost consciousness.
Emergency medical personnel arrived within 15 minutes of McFarland becoming trapped, followed by the first Atlanta Fire Rescue crew five minutes later, the report said. McFarland was given an IV and an oxygen mask. Additional fire crews arrived every 10 to 20 minutes, until the fifth and final crew arrived with specialized equipment an hour and 15 minutes after McFarland had become pinned.
With the help of an elevator maintenance specialist, the fire crew was able to remove McFarland by using their equipment to “cut and bend and push the elevator car backwards,” the report said. The remaining students were able to get off the elevator on the second floor.
McFarland was given lifesaving measures by medical personnel and taken to an ambulance under active CPR efforts. After being taken to Atlanta Medical Center, McFarland died there of cardiac arrest, according to the accident report — a prognosis that is disputed by McFarland’s family. They say his cause of death was asphyxiation.
“I would just like to know what happened,” McFarland’s stepfather, James Boyce, said during the emotional news conference. “It didn’t make any sense to me. How can you make kids responsible for an elevator accident?”
Residents of the 444 Highland building told Channel 2 Action News the elevator frequently malfunctioned and they had filed several complaints alerting property management about the issue.
Inspection reports show issues with the elevators dating to 2018, including a phone not working, the lack of anti-rotation devices and a counterweight, and the need for the elevator car top and pit to be cleaned. An inspection report from August 2019 said the elevator’s annual test was “way overdue.”
