Brooklyn DA’s office joins investigation into Flatbush building collapse that left 8 dead

Prosecutors at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office have joined the city’s Department of Buildings in its investigation of the deadly Brooklyn building collapse, it was announced Friday.

Attorney General Letitia James disclosed the Brooklyn DA’s involvement as she and local leaders demanded accountability for the eight lives lost and vowed to strengthen building regulations.

“The families and this community deserve answers about what led to this collapse,”  she told reporters at the YMCA on Flatbush Ave. near Rogers Ave., where the Red Cross has set up a reception center to assist displaced residents.

At a separate press conference in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Mayor Mamdani said, “If we find anyone that has violated the law, we will hold them fully accountable.”

At about 4 p.m. Wednesday, 1321 Flatbush Ave. — a three-story mixed-use building in Flatbush — collapsed and slid into an adjacent construction site, officials said. The building had been perched at the edge of the site at 2625 Bedford Ave., where a construction crew was excavating the property for a proposed three-story building.

The contractor involved in construction at the site had been cited by the city for problems related to demolition at the Bedford Ave. location, including violating a stop-work order aimed at halting problematic work, city records reviewed by the Daily News show.

Housing, Preservation and Development records also show that 1321 Flatbush Ave. was subject to 98 open violations, including defective doors, unsafe electrical wiring, leaking ceilings, defective fire retardant material, and missing or malfunctioning smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, although it wasn’t clear if any of the violations would have contributed to the collapse.

Displaced residents joined elected officials at Friday’s press conference, recounting their stories of all they lost.

Zariah Coleman, a 13-year-old resident who is still desperately hoping to find her cat, which has been missing since the collapse, recalled that her family used to “feel shakes” in their building as construction went on next door.

“They put a lot of lives in danger,” the girl said, beginning to cry.

Since the collapse, the city has conducted more than 160 inspection sweeps at sites across the city, “associated with six entities that are associated with this project,” Mamdani said.

“In addition to conducting this investigation, we are also bringing on board an outside engineering consulting firm to provide an independent report, which is standard practice for this kind of tragic incident,” he added.

Local elected leaders called on more DOB oversight at neighborhood construction projects so a similar collapse doesn’t happen.

“(We need) aggressive oversight… to ensure every negligent owner, contractor and entity is held fully accountable under the law,” said City Councilwoman Farrah Louis, who represents the Flatbush neighborhood. “Since Wednesday afternoon, our community has been living through a nightmare.”

Local elected leaders also vowed to allocate more money to the Department of Buildings to bulk up their army of inspectors.

“What happened here was a tragedy,” James said. “If the [Department of Buildings] requires additional resources to hire more inspectors, all of the elected officials here will support that budget increase.”

City Council Speaker Julie Menin called the collapse an “unspeakable, horrendous tragedy.”

“We will ensure that their names are never forgotten,” Menin said of the dead. “We also will ensure that we strengthen the building codes, the building rules and regulations.”

Menin said they will ensure the DOB gets more resources if needed.

“This is a human catastrophe that most likely could have been avoided had we been as vigilant protecting the lives of those that were lost as we are grabbing people and telling them to prove themselves to be in the country legally,” Rev. Al Sharpton told the crowd.

Full vacate orders remained in place for 1322, 1325, and 1327 Flatbush Ave. on Friday.

“Temporarily displaced residents of all other impacted buildings on Flatbush are now allowed to return home,” Mamdani said.

The city approved permits to build a three-story building at 2652 Bedford Ave., but developers were seeking approval for a nine-story structure with a cellar when the neighboring building collapsed, according to DOB commissioner Ahmed Tigani.

“They don’t have approval for a nine-story building,” Tigani said Friday. “If there’s any changes to either the excavation that’s done, the foundation that would be in place for a larger building, those adjustments would have to be made as part of the longer-term approval.”

“We are doing an exhaustive investigation, not only of that entity but multiple entities related to this project,” he said.