Worker killed in Beachwood Shopping Center collapse ID’d

An investigation into what caused part of the roof at an Ocean County shopping plaza to collapse, killing one person, continues.

Raymond Crosby, 52, of Keansburg was killed in the collapse on Thursday afternoon during a planned demolition of the old Beachwood Shopping Center in Berkeley Township, according to an email from the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.

The office said the first call came in to Berkeley Township Police around 2:10 p.m.

“Somehow there was a collapse and that worker was killed,” wrote spokesman Al Della Fave.

Workers frantically dug through the debris of the collapse to reach Crosby but he was unresponsive when MonOc paramedics were able to treat him. He was pronounced dead an hour after the collapse at the Route 9 shopping center.

Chris Lake, a witness to the accident at the liquor store next door, told the Asbury Park Press workers from Edgewood Properties of Piscataway were pulling pieces of the roof when "out of nowhere the whole thing fell down.

"It's a shame, man," he said. "They should have never had people in there when they were doing that roof."

As reported by Townsquare Media station 92.7 WOBM, the shopping center was built in 1959 by entrepreneur Jimmy Johnson, and was in the vanguard of suburban one-stop merchandising hubs that began to dot the landscape as automobiles moved commerce away from downtown areas. A bowling alley and Woolworth's at one time called the center home but had come into disrepair as retailers moved out. Pieces had become twisted and torn during high winds in 2012.

Della Fave said the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration iis leading the investigation

Tom Mongelli contributed to this report