NEW YORK — The hopes and dreams of a young Metropolitan Opera stagehand vanished in the blink of an eye beneath a No. 1 train.
Dragged to his death after he ran to a subway in uptown Manhattan after his Monday shift, Joseph Ancona’s family was remembered as a vivacious young man with an ever-present grin, a love of sports, and a girlfriend of four years.
“He was like the happiest,” his uncle Dan Coli told the Daily News on Wednesday. “They called him ‘Smile’ because he was always smiling and always smiling. … He was just a sweet boy.”
Ancona, 20, grew up in the north Jersey suburb of Westwood, where the sports-loving man—a slender six foot tall—was an avid golfer who also enjoyed playing baseball and basketball. The son of a union electrician, he followed his father into the business, eventually landing in Manhattan.
“We’re just devastated,” his aunt Maria Ancona told The News from her home in Brooklyn. “We don’t get it. His parents are distraught. How do you prepare for this kind of news? I still can’t believe this happened. Disregarded.”
Joseph Ancona was caught when the doors of the last car of a No. 1 train closed at 4:56 p.m. Monday, police said. He was killed after tumbling to the Columbus Circle tracks. Ancona ran to the train in the upper town that drove him down as he left the station, with police sources saying it remained unclear exactly how the accident happened.
The sources said investigators were trying to determine if his backpack was stuck in the doors or if his foot was somehow tied to the departing train.
“Everyone wants to blame someone because it makes you feel better,” Coli said. “It won’t bring him back, it won’t make it different. But it seems like it was very preventable.”
Eyewitnesses contacted by a family member via Twitter suggested the subway doors would close soon, with riders able to disembark but some unable to board.
The victim worked in the electrical building store for the Metropolitan Opera crew, while a Met spokeswoman recalled that he was “respected and loved” after joining the staff just seven months earlier.
“I’m still in shock,” his shaky grandmother said Wednesday, as the family released a statement on GoFundMe saying the young victim was “loved by so many.”
Ancona, who left behind a twin sister, Gianna, traveled to town from Bergen County every morning by taking a bus and a train. Westwood police delivered the grim news to the family’s home about two hours after the death.
“He wanted a house,” said Coli, Ancona’s mother’s brother. “He had a girlfriend for a long time. Really sweet girl. She’s going to Penn State. Her parents had to go out and drive her home and tell her.”
The GoFundMe statement added a thank you for “prayers and condolences and…for thinking of us (us) at this difficult time.”
NYC Transit president Richard Davey described the death as “a terrible accident” and promised an investigation will “find the cause” of what happened. But Coli said that was cold comfort to the grieving family.
“Life is, unfortunately, there is a lot of heartache,” said Coli. “And you have to take every good positive thing in life because it goes so fast.”
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