NEW YORK (WCBS 880)  -- A five-year-old boy is dead.

The terrible accident happened at 9 o'clock this morning at a city-owned apartment building on the Brooklyn waterfront.

Police say the boy was riding the elevator at the Taylor-White Houses in Williamsburg with his eight-year-old brother. They were on their way to school.

The car became stuck between the tenth and eleventh floors of the high rise and when the doors opened there was a small crawl space out onto the tenth floor.

Police say the little boy crawled out but lost his footing and fell into the elevator shaft, ten stories.

He was pronounced dead at Brooklyn Hospital.

Right now police are doing an investigation.

People who live here are telling the gathered reporters that they did have problems with the elevators. The Housing Department keeps a record and we've yet to confirm any problems with the elevators, but this is being treated as a tragic accident.

The boys' parents were not home at the time. They apparently went out grocery shopping. They were under the care and supervision of the fourteen-year-old sister.