A wake is scheduled Wednesday for the 16-year-old boy who died after he fell down an elevator shaft in an abandoned hospital on Staten Island as city officials prepare to demolish the building.
Marcos Castillo, of Staten Island, was playing inside the abandoned building at 100 Castleton Avenue Friday afternoon when he fell down the shaft seven stories to the ground below, police said. He was pronounced dead at Richmond University Medical Center.
A wake for Castillo is scheduled Wednesday evening at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Benedicta Church, and funeral services will be held there the following morning. He will be buried at Silvermount Cemetery, according to his obituary.
City building officials told NBC 4 New York Tuesday they have issued a permit for demolition at the former site of Staten Island Hospital, which closed its doors and relocated in 1979.
Castillo's family want to know why it wasn't done sooner.
"If they close it before, they break it down that building before, my son could be alive, but now it's too late," said father Jorge Rivera. "Why they wait too long?"
The building has sat vacant for decades, and neighbors watched as teens made it a hangout.
"Jumping the fence, it's so easy," said neighbor Tony Orihuela. "They go in there to do what, I don't know."
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Last year, police were called to the site about a disorderly group. It remains unclear who is now responsible for the building. Calls to the buildings department were referred to the Department of Finance for the deed information. The borough president did not want to comment on the situation, either.
Rivera pleaded, "Take those buildings down. I don't want someone else to get hurt like us."
The family also wants answers from their son's school. Rivera said he thinks Castillo skipped school but the family was never notified the sophomore was missing from class.
"My son went to school. Why'd they let him go? Why they didn't call me after he left school?" he said, showing NBC 4 New York a record of his son's school portal, which had the teen absent for class periods on Friday.
The Department of Education said schools are instructed to reach out to parents if their child is absent from school but did not say if Curtis High School attempted to call Castillo's family that day. Rivera believes that a phone call could have helped them find their son before he ended up at the abandoned building.
When police arrived they found Castillo with head injuries. An investigation determined that he had fallen seven stories to the ground below. He was rushed in serious condition to Richmond University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, according to police.
Rivera said Castillo was a quiet kid and always came home after school. He said they grew concerned Friday when he didn't arrive in a timely fashion.
Police then showed up at their door and said there had been some sort of accident and they needed to come to the hospital.
