Crime & Safety

UPDATE: Police Identify Worker Who Fell to Death at Wheaton Construction Site

The 31-year-old man fell accidentally at a construction site near the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Veirs Mill Road, police said.

Update, March 13, 11:30 a.m.

Montgomery County police have identified the 31-year-old man who fell to his death March 8 at a Wheaton construction site as José Roberto Lemus-Flores, of the 3500 block of Powder Mill Road in Beltsville.

A police spokesperson said Lemus-Flores had been walking along an exposed third story decking when a gust of wind caused him to lose his footing. He fell one story onto a concrete pad and was pronounced dead at the scene.

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Original story, March 8, 1:21 p.m.

A worker died Friday morning after falling at a construction site in Wheaton, Montgomery County police and fire officials said.

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The fall occurred at the site of the former First Baptist Church, at 10914 Georgia Avenue, where a six-story, 232-unit residential apartment project called Solaire Wheaton is under construction.

More than a dozen firefighters responded within five minutes of a 10:18 a.m. report of a person injured after a fall, said Beth Anne Nesselt, a county fire and rescue service spokeswoman. The worker was pronounced dead at the scene. 

The age or gender of the worker has not yet been released.

Another construction worker at the scene, who would not give a name, said that high winds played a part in the fall.

Maryland Occupational Safety and Health, the state agency that oversees workplace safety, has been notified as is “standard protocol in this type of incident,” Nesselt said.


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