Man is strangled after clothing snags in MBTA escalator

In what officials called the worst escalator mishap in MBTA history, a 34-year-old man from El Salvador was strangled to death last week after the hood of his sweatshirt became entangled in the teeth at the bottom of the escalator at the Red Line's Porter Square Station.

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officials, who did not make the Feb. 21 incident public until yesterday, said MBTA Transit Police and inspectors from the state Department of Public Safety have ruled the death an accident.

''If the T believed that this was anything other than an isolated incident, then swift and decisive action would have been taken, accompanied by a public announcement," said MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo.

Francisco Portillo, a prep cook who came to Boston four years ago, left early that day from Kaya, a sushi bar in Porter Square. Investigators believe that around 9:45 p.m., Portillo was either sitting or lying down on the 143-foot-long escalator when his hood became snagged in the escalator's comb plate, dragging him to the floor and choking him until another commuter hit the emergency shut-off button.

MBTA Transit Police received an initial call of a man having a seizure after a witness at the top of the escalator saw Portillo struggling and contacted the station's collector. Officials said an inspector was at the station within two minutes. Several others tried unsuccessfully to help Portillo, but his sweatshirt was too tight around his neck to remove.

Paramedics and police eventually cut Portillo loose. He was taken to Cambridge City Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The medical examiner said the cause of death was strangulation, Pesaturo said. Results of toxicology tests could take weeks, he said. A near-empty bottle of Korean whiskey was later found in Portillo's pocket.

''At this point investigators believe that alcohol was involved in this incident," Pesaturo said.

Kriz Chong, 34, a sushi chef at Kaya, said Portillo had worked there several years after working as a prep cook in a sister restaurant in Copley Square. The night Portillo died, Chong said he was told that Portillo had dropped several dishes. A short time later, Chong said he approached Portillo to discuss the incident.

''I think he was drunk," Chong said. ''He couldn't even speak properly. He was mumbling almost, and we just left him alone." Chong said he saw Portillo ''walking tipsy" when he left the restaurant before his shift ended.

Berardo Maldonado, 20, Portillo's half-brother, mourned him yesterday and prepared to send Portillo's body home to their small town of La Reina in Chalatenango, a northern province in El Salvador.

''What can you do but bear it?" Maldonado said. ''It's very painful."

He said that Portillo never finished high school and that with five children and a wife to support, he had moved to Boston about four years ago to find work and send money home. Maldonado said Portillo was friendly and liked to tell jokes, but worked six days a week and spent what little free time he had hanging out in the East Boston apartment he shared with Maldonado and three cousins. ''He worked all the time," Maldonado said. ''He wanted to go back home."

MBTA Transit Police are continuing to investigate Portillo's death and are seeking witnesses.

After the accident, officials from the MBTA's safety department, representatives from the T's escalator contractor, and a supervisor of the elevator-escalator unit for the state Department of Public Safety inspected the escalator. Officials later ruled that there were no mechanical problems before the accident.

The escalator was not equipped with a comb-plate sensor, a device required in newer models that shut them down if something gets caught.

Accidents involving MBTA escalators plagued the system for years. The old, single-file Aquarium station escalators, replaced in 2003 when a new station was built, were the scene of several, including a 1995 incident in which a 3-year-old Cambridge boy's leg was severely gashed. A year later, a Beacon Hill man got his coat caught in the escalator at State Street, ensnaring his arm, which had to be amputated.

Maria Sachetti of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Mac Daniel can be reached at mdaniel@globe.com.