Six adults and two children were killed Wednesday afternoon when a three-story building at 1321 Flatbush Avenue collapsed into a construction site next door. Eighteen other people were injured in the collapse or responding to it. One of them remains in critical condition, Mayor Zohran Mamdani reported at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
Many of the people impacted by the collapse are immigrants, the mayor said, including from Ecuador, Trinidad, Colombia and Mexico. One victim was a 26-year-old father from Ecuador, Today reported. José Luis Caguana Cosquillo leaves behind his pregnant wife and their first child.
"A tragedy of this magnitude demands a comprehensive and thorough investigation that includes both the construction site and the building which collapsed," Mamdani said. But at this time, city officials said, the cause of the collapse has not been determined. It could well have something to do with the demolition and excavation of the building site next door at 2625 Bedford Avenue, work that was permitted and ongoing when 1321 Flatbush collapsed, taking with it one side of the neighboring building.