Sea Isle balcony collapse: Contractor company operated without permits
SEA ISLE CITY, N.J. (CBS) -- The grieving family of 43-year-old Jose Pereira, who was killed after a balcony collapse in Sea Isle City last month, is speaking out and demanding answers.
More than two weeks after the deadly balcony collapse, the pain and sorrow felt by Pereira's family is still so raw.
"I was so devastated," Aurora Soto said. "I was screaming. It should have been preventable."
Speaking exclusively with CBS News Philadelphia, Soto remembers learning about the death of her son.
"I prayed to God he was alive," Soto said, "but I knew in my heart he was something else."
Pereira was working at the Spinnaker Condominium Complex in February when an eighth-floor balcony above him collapsed.
The company that employed Pereira was doing work at the Spinnaker building without permits, according to a Sea Isle City spokesperson who added it's not clear whether permits were necessary, but private engineers are now working to figure that out.
Meantime, Spinnaker and the contractor did not return requests for comment.
"The forensic said all his organs were crushed," Soto said. "Can you imagine that? All his organs were crushed. … I need answers. That's what I need, answers, and I don't have them."
His mother says even though all the weight of the balcony fell on top of him, killing him instantly, his family was still able to have a viewing.
"That balcony didn't crush him because God didn't want it to," Soto said. "I think God put his hand in the middle because the balcony didn't fall completely on him. Because if it were to crush him he wouldn't have had a viewing but God was there with him."
Pereira was a husband, a father of three girls, ages 13, 18 and 21, and was Soto's son.
"He lived for his daughters," Soto said. "He was a very hardworking man."
His mother is trying to understand why more wasn't done to prevent her son's death.
Part of the Spinnaker building remains evacuated as OSHA continues its investigation into what led up to the collapse.