Falling Metal Gate Kills New York City Flavored Ice Maker

A Honduran immigrant who for more than 40 years sold popular flavored ices in the South Bronx has died after being crushed when he slipped below his descending metal security gate.

But Alfredo Thiebaud’s son tells the New York Daily News Saturday his father died doing what he loved – working at his beloved Delicioso Coco Helado.

Police say an electronic security gate slammed into the 79-year-old dessert maker’s neck, killing him instantly. They say he slipped and fell underneath it after trying to slip under the descending roll-down gate.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. tells the newspaper that Thiebaud’s immigrant story epitomized the Bronx.

After starting with nothing, he eventually employed 300 workers and owned stores in multiple states.