(CNN) A 30-year-old man was crushed to death Thursday by an elevator at a New York high-rise, police said.

The man was pinned by the elevator between the basement and first floor of a building on Third Avenue on the East Side of Manhattan, said Det. Sophia Mason, a police spokeswoman.

Emergency medical personnel pronounced the man dead at the scene after a 911 call, Mason said. The medical examiner's office ruled the death an accident, and said the cause was blunt force injuries to his neck and torso.

The man appeared to have been leaving the elevator at the first floor when it plunged and pinned him between floors, police said.

The man was identified as Samuel Charles Waisbren, the New York Police Department said in a statement.

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