A 37-year-old man is dead following an elevator accident inside a Williamsburg residential building early Friday morning. NY1's Roger Clark filed the following report.

Residents at 156 Hope Street in Williamsburg woke up to find out someone had been killed in their building's elevator.

"My roommates just rose the elevator about 15 minutes before it happened, so it's really scary," said one resident.

Sources tell NY1 that the victim was Eran Modan, a Queens resident originally from Israel.

Police say it was around 4 a.m. when he and four or five other people were in the apartment building elevator. The doors never fully closed when they got in. It started moving, then stopped. He tried to climb out, but then it jerked and crushed him.

Buildings Commissioner Rick Chandler was at the scene to talk about the investigation.

"The only thing that I know that I can comment on is that we think the elevator was adjusting or leveling, and we're speculating right now - as I said, it is under investigation - it's possible that it may have been overloaded and the car was reacting in a way that was not predictable," Chandler said.

The commissioner said the department's elevator inspections were up to date. There were several violations reported involving the elevator in recent years, but he says those were resolved.

"It had its category 5 inspections in 2013, where it gets a thorough investigation of all the parts. That passed successfully," Chandler said. "It's had category 1 [inspections], again mandatory, again within the last year. No problems involved with that."

Chandler called this a tragic accident, leaving residents of the building shook up on a Friday morning.

The commissioner noted that the building is fairly new, completed in 2010. There were no construction projects or work being done on the elevator at the time of the accident.