A Vicksburg man died Friday afternoon after he fell 25 to 30 feet down an elevator shaft while working with a crew renovating the former Valley Dry Goods building at Washington and South streets.

Elbert Stelivan, 71, 1711 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., was pronounced dead at River Region Medical Center at 3:37 p.m. by Warren County Deputy Coroner Ronald C. Reagan. Vicksburg Fire Department Chief Keith Rogers said Stelivan fell from the second story of the building to the basement. The building has an operational elevator, but Rogers said it was not on the second floor when Stelivan stepped into the open shaft. Emergency responders got the call about Stelivan’s fall around 2:45 p.m., and he was carried out of the building on a stretcher at 3:20.

“He was just a great man, and he will be greatly missed,” said Troy Wince, one of Stelivan’s five children, who added his father had multiple grandchildren.

Reagan said the cause of Stelivan’s death was head injury, but added an autopsy will be performed at the Mississippi Crime Lab in Jackson today because it was a work-related death. 

W.A. Hollingsworth Construction of Vicksburg has been rehabbing the building since Sept. 1, said a contractor with the company who did not want to be named. The contractor said six people were working in the building when Stelivan fell down the elevator shaft, but no one witnessed the fall.

“We don’t know how or why he fell,” he said.

The Valley building, located at 1421 Washington St., was sold in June 2007 to Kayvon Agahnia by Mayor Laurence Leyens’ family, which created the dry goods store in 1881 and had the current six-story building built in 1910. The store was closed in 1983, and the building had stood vacant until renovations began earlier this year to create retail space and apartments.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com.