A night of heavy drinking could have led to the demise of a man found inside a 99th Street apartment Thursday, officials said this week.
Cops from the 68th Precinct said that they were called to a fourth-floor apartment at 303 99th Street, located off of Third Avenue, just before noon on September 11, where they discovered a 38-year-old man dead inside.
As this paper went to press, it was unclear just what the victim, identified as Waldemar Gaba, a resident of 95th Street, had died from, although a deep two-inch gash on the back of his head led responding officers to initially believe that he was a victim of foul play.
Detectives and crime scene investigators are probing the death, but are now awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine just what Gaba perished from before they continue further.
On Monday, officials from the city’s Medical Examiner’s office said that they had yet to determine the cause of death.
Sources close to the case said that it was becoming more and more likely that Gaba’s death was accidental.
“There was a lot of blood, but there were no signs of a struggle,” the source said, adding that two older men were in the apartment with Gaba when he died.
Those two men reportedly told detectives that they and Gaba had spent the night drinking and had gone to bed before he died.
When they woke up, Gaba was dead.
Sources said that it was possible that Gaba struck his head somehow and, because he was intoxicated, opted to go to sleep instead of seeking medical attention.
It’s been speculated that he died of his injuries sometime during the night.
“His injuries are consistent with a backward fall, but now we are trying to determine if someone pushed him,” the source said.
Police are asking anyone with information regarding this incident to come forward.
Calls can be made to the 68th Precinct at (718) 439-4211.
