Man strangled to death by escalator; state investigating

A man who was strangled to death Sunday on a downtown Seattle escalator may have been drunk, according to a police report.

Maurecio Bell, 42, was found unconscious at the bottom of an escalator at the 3rd Avenue and Seneca Street Metro Transit tunnel underneath Benaroya Hall.

A witness called 911 and the Seattle Fire Department arrived on scene at 5:36 a.m. Attempts to perform CPR were unsuccessful and Bell was pronounced dead, according to fire department spokesperson Kyle Moore.

According to the police report, video surveillance showed Bell stagger, lose his balance, and then fall onto his back about three quarters of the way down the escalator.

“(Bell) was going down the escalator when he lost his balance, it appears, and his clothing became entangled in the mechanism of the escalator,” said Jeff Switzer with King County Metro Transit.

Police found an open bottle of E&J Brandy in Bell’s back pocket.

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office found that Bell died of asphyxia due to ligature strangulation. The manner of death was ruled as accidental.

The Department of Labor and Industries, which is responsible for the inspection of more than 16,000 elevators and escalators statewide, will investigate the incident.

Dave Wasser, a spokesperson for Labor & Industries, said the escalator was overdue for repairs.

On Dec. 5, 2012, Labor & Industries inspectors ordered a contractor for Metro Transit to fix “a number of things” that were wrong with the escalator, he said. A deadline of March 27 to address the issues was not met.

“We know that at least some, perhaps all of those things have not been done,” he said.

Wasser said it is too soon to tell whether issues with the escalator contributed to Bell’s death.