Jerry Fuchs, a drummer who played in bands including !!!, died after attempting to jump out of an disabled elevator at a fundraising party at 338 Berry St.
was in an elevator at a Williamsburg fund raiser when it got stuck a few feet above the fifth floor. Fuchs and the other man in the elevator attempted to jump out, while the other man landed safely on the floor, Fuchs’ clothes caught on the elevator and he fell through the shaft.
The musician died shortly after 12:30am (EST) Sunday (November 8) morning, reports the New York Post.
The Fatal Fall
Fuchs and a friend were in the elevator at a Williamsburg fund raiser when it got stuck a few feet above the fifth floor. The musician and the other man in the elevator attempted to leap over a gap between the elevator and the building’s fifth floor after a malfunction.
While trying to jump out of the stalled car, Fuchs’ jacket caught on the elevator, causing him to fall to the bottom of the shaft. The other man landed safely on the floor.
"It's a manual freight elevator, and it stopped somewhere above the fifth floor," Buildings Department spokesman Tony Sclafani told the Post.
Alex Frankel, Fuchs’s roommate in Bushwick, told the New York Times that he arrived at the party just before 1 a.m. and heard that somebody had fallen. Upon reaching the spot he saw a figure lying face down.
“We flipped him over and it was Jerry,” Frankel, who sings with the band Holy Ghost!, said. “When we found him he was not able to talk.”
The Georgia-born drummer’s distraught mom, Joy, said, "He touched lives. His gift for music touched many lives."
Fuchs, who had been attending a benefit for The Uniform Project, designed to help the children of India's slums, was pronounced dead at 3:30am after being taken to Bellevue Hospital.
Tragic end of second drummer
Besides the West Coast dance-punk band !!! (pronounced "chk chk chk"), Fuchs also drummed for bands Turing Machine, The Juan Machine and the Georgia-based psychedelic instrumental ensemble Maserati.
Fuchs is the second Maserati drum player to meet a tragic end. In 2005, Mikel Gius was killed after being mowed down while riding his bike in Sacramento.
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