Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Aspiring Tattoo Artist Dies in Elevator Shaft, Friends Say

By  Trevor Kapp and Aidan Gardiner | July 28, 2014 9:14am 

 Tito Morales got stuck between the elevator and the shaft wall in the Adams Houses, police said.
Tito Morales got stuck between the elevator and the shaft wall in the Adams Houses, police said.
View Full Caption
Composite with Facebook/beboo.morales and DNAinfo/Trevor Kapp

MELROSE — An aspiring tattoo artist died Monday morning when he got wedged between an elevator car and a shaft wall in the Adams Houses in The Bronx, police said.

Tito Morales, 20, was pulled from the space between the 18th and 19th floors of 680 Tinton Ave., near East 155th Street, about 4 a.m., the NYPD said.

Morales, who went by the nickname "Beboo," was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. The medical examiner will determine his cause of death.

Police were still trying to determine how he became trapped.

Morales, who once lived at the Adams Houses and may have been visiting his girlfriend, was trying to start a career as a tattoo artist, friends said.

"He liked doing tattoos. He just wanted to be successful. He didn't have a main goal, just to have success," said 19-year-old Anthony Rodriguez, a friend and former classmate.

"I can't even think straight," said the distraught Rodriguez, who had known Morales since middle school.

Morales' social media profiles are filled with pictures of him giving tattoos to others and showcasing his finished products.

"I saw him yesterday. We were just chilling in the park playing dominoes. It's crazy, it's crazy," said Joselyn Rentas, 24, who had spoken with Morales' grieving girlfriend after his death.

"The last words he told his girl were, 'I love you.' We were gonna go to the pool today."

The New York City Housing Authority, which runs the building Morales died in, referred press inquiries to the NYPD.

The Department of Buildings was helping investigate the elevator death, a spokesman said.