3rd Youth Arrested after Injured Teen Abandoned in Bridge Fall
When a 16 year old fell the bottom of a 50 ft shaft on the Queensboro Bridge the injured teen’s mom said the companions “left him there to die.” Now a third teen has been arrested, police said.
| 26 Feb 2026 | 09:24
Companions posted videos of the injured Franke Allocca moaning in pain after he fell down a 50 ft shaft on the Queensboro Bridge but they fled and never notified first responders. (
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Firefighters spent hours searching for and then rescuing a 16 year old teenager who had fallen down a 50 foot maintenance shaft while attempting to record a social media stunt. (
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Frankie Allocca was hoisted above the bridge roadway in a harness after firefighters were able to reach him at the bottom of a 50 ft shaft. He suffered spine and brain injuries. (
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A third teen has been arrested for abandoning a 16-year-old boy who fell down a 50 ft worker’s shaft on the Queensboro Bridge while attempting to perform a social media stunt. His companions fled. It was hours later before first responders were were able to find and then rescue the critically injured teen who lost blood and suffered from hypothermia.
The injured teen, identified as Frankie Allocca, suffered brain and spine injuries according to his mother, Vanessa Tineo. She said in an interview with Gothamist that the companions who were him at the time of the accident “left him there to die.”
The third teen arrested was 14-year-old who was charged with criminal endangerment on Feb. 20, Our Town has learned.
Two others had already been arrested: a 14 year old was arrested on Feb. 17 and charged with criminal trespass and a 15-year-old, who turned himself into the 20th Pct on Feb. 18 and was charged with criminal endangerment and criminal trespass.
The names of the suspects were not released since they are all minors. The matter is being handled by Family Court, according the Manhattan DAs office.
Our Town was the first to report that the teen fell down the shaft around 3 p.m. and spent hours injured and alone.
Police said they did not received a 911 call until 5:46 p.m., after he had been at the bottom of the dark shaft for nearly three hours. But the wait grew longer because police could not locate him initially. It was not until 8:10 p.m. that firefighters finally located the shaft that Allocca had fallen into when they spotted a shoe and blood.
Firefighters from Rescue One were not able to reach the victim until around 8:50 p.m. and then it took several hours more before he was secured by a Spec Pac harness and safely extracted from the narrow shaft.
He was rushed to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. An NYPD dispatcher said at the time he was a “code red patient,” which meant he was in critical condition with life threatening injuries.
In her interview with Gothamist, Vanessa Tineo said that her son was expected to live, but will have to learn to walk again. David Darcy started a GoFundMe to help defray medical costs and it raised over $19,000 towards its goal of $20,000 by Feb. 26. Darcy had not provided any updates since the initial posting and had not returned several emails from Our Town seeking update.
“No one deserves to be abandoned in their worst moment,” the family wrote in the GoFundMe post. “Frankie suffered a life-threatening fall in New York City that left him critically injured. After he fell, the people he was with recorded him as he screamed for help. Instead of helping him, they left him there. They even took his phone and disposed of it, leaving him with no way to call for help.
“Frankie lay alone for over four hours, bleeding and exposed to the cold,” the family statement continued. “By the time help arrived, he had lost a severe amount of blood and was hypothermic.”
A change.org petition was urging “investigate and charge ‘friends’ of Frankie for leaving him to die” and had collected over 1,700 signatures by Feb. 26.
A signer identified only as Bella wrote: “This is a life altering, traumatic event for Frankie in many, many ways. Not only does he have a long physical recovery ahead, but the mental recovery will also be incredibly challenging. I can’t imagine being able to trust another friend after that. I hope the people responsible are brought to justice.”
Police and community activists have long been attempting to discourage the risk-tasking youths involved in the so-called urbex movement that involves public structures as well private property in cities, but to little avail. Veteran urbex practitioners say social media platforms have made younger participants more reckless and blasted the companions who abandoned Allocca.
“Until the new crowd of social media algorithm-incentivized clout chasers appeared in 2021, NO ONE would have EVER considered leaving a friend to die,” said one poster who said he’s been involved in urbex for 30 years. “The implied expectation is in the extremely rare event of an injury, EVERYONE ensures the injured gets care ASAP and calls 911 if they can’t extract the person on their own.”
Allocca was from Lynbrook on Long Island and the kids who were initially trying to perform the TikTok stunt were reportedly from Long Island and the Bronx. At least four individuals were on the bridge and were discussing his fall for hours in a private Whats App chat before an 18 year old girl who was not on the bridge realized first responders had never been notified and called police herself.