Eblein Lopez ID'd as body found in garbage truck at William Rogers Middle School in Kings Park after dumpster pickup, police say

Police have identified the man who was found dead in a dumpster in Commack Thursday morning.

Eblein Lopez, 45, had apparently been sleeping in the dumpster and his body was found after a garbage truck stopped at a Kings Park middle school and he and another man were spotted inside, according to the Suffolk County Police Department.

The truck had just made a stop at 108 Veterans Memorial Hwy. in Commack and emptied the dumpster into the truck with the men inside, the department wrote in an email.

"When the truck stopped at William Rogers Middle School," at 97 Old Dock Rd. in Kings Park about 6:30 a.m., "someone saw a person inside the back of the truck," the email said.

That person, a 21-year-old man, according to police, was removed and brought to a hospital with a leg injury. Lopez was declared dead at the scene.

"It is believed the men were sleeping in the dumpster," the email said.

The department said Lopez's cause of death will be determined by the Medical Examiner’s Office.

According to the police press office, both men were homeless.

It's 4 miles from where the dumpster was emptied in Commack to where the men were discovered inside the truck, but the truck's route wasn't immediately disclosed.

In a letter to the community, Kings Park Superintendent Timothy Eagen wrote that the incident was "completely unrelated to our building, our students, or our staff" at William T. Rogers Middle School. "Furthermore, there is absolutely no threat to the safety of students, faculty or staff and the school day is operating as usual."

A message left with the garbage truck company, National Waste Services of Bay Shore and East Hampton, was not returned.

Veterans Memorial Plaza, where the dumpster had been located, is owned and operated by an affiliate of Kimco Realty Corp, according to Jen Maisch, Kimco's senior vice president of Marketing & Retail Partnerships.

Maisch said due to the active investigation, they could not comment on the situation and referred all inquiries to Suffolk police.

A 2017 article in The Guardian found at least 50 instances in the United States of dumpster-related deaths and serious injuries of homeless people, including in Kansas, Texas, Michigan, Oklahoma and Oregon.

It’s not just homeless people who have died or been hurt in dumpster-related incidents.

Newsday reported in 2021 that a Carle Place man died at a North Hempstead town drop-off site after falling over "an unguarded ledge and into a dumpster, causing him to sustain a fracture of his thoracic spine and spinal cord injury as a result of blunt force trauma," according to his widow's lawsuit. The case was discontinued, but the disposition of the claim was unclear in court records.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.