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Man leaps to his death from 86th floor observation deck at Empire State Building
New York Daily News ^ | March 30, 2010 | Kerry Burke and John Lauinger

Posted on 03/31/2010 5:13:56 AM PDT by ETL


Savulich/News
Body of unidentified man lies on sidewalk on W. 34th St.
after the man, believed to be in his 20s, reportedly jumped
from the Empire State Building

A young man took a fatal plunge from the 86th-floor observation deck of the Empire State Building on Tuesday night, crashing down on W. 34th St. and horrifying pedestrians, police said.

The jumper managed to get past the 10-foot-high spiked fence ringing the observation deck and then disappeared below the outermost ledge around 6:15 p.m., police sources said.

He landed with a sickening thud on a sidewalk along W.34th St., near a bank branch at the northeast entrance of the famed midtown skyscraper.

"He came down in front of the Bank of America. Boom! It was an explosion," said Luis Mosquea, 28, who was manning the front entrance of a women's boutique on W. 34th St., across from where the man landed.

"His body was shattered and his sneakers were scattered on the sidewalk," said Mosquea, recalling in horror how stunned pedestrians scampered in every direction to flee the nightmarish sight.

"One guy ran over and covered the body with an umbrella," he said. "It's crazy."

Police said last night they believed the man was a college student in his early 20s, but they cautioned that the man had yet to be positively identified.

The observation deck of the 102-story landmark, normally thronged with tourists, was relatively uncrowded yesterday on account of heavy rain. Police sources said they did not believe the man was part of a group of tourists.

At least 34 people have jumped to their deaths from the Empire State Building since it opened in 1931.

The most recent was Moshe Kanovsky, 31, of Brooklyn, who leaped out of a 69th-floor window in April 2007.

One of the more memorable recent suicides from atop the observation deck came in October 2000, when a 19-year-old Canadian man dressed like a pirate chose to end his life in headline-making fashion.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/03/30/2010-03-30_man_leaps_to_his_death_from_86th_floor_observation_deck_at_empire_state_building.html


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: New York
KEYWORDS: empirestatebuilding; nyc; suicide
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To: DManA
I always thought you couldn’t make it to the ground due to all the setbacks on the Empire State. Urban Legend I guess.

I was up on the deck a year and a half ago. If you jump off the right spot and push yourself away from the building far enough, you have only one setback to get past.
21 posted on 03/31/2010 5:28:46 AM PDT by Bad Jack Bauer (Fat and Bald? I was BORN fat and bald, thank you very much!)
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To: ETL

I guess they’ve ruled out foul play.


22 posted on 03/31/2010 5:29:50 AM PDT by Mobties (A)
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To: Puppage

Reminds me of a guy who committed suicide by jumping off city hall in Buffalo, New York a few years ago. The guy was probably one of life’s losers, so he decides to end it all. So the unlucky bastard leaps, and ends up impaling himself on the flagpole in front of city hall.


23 posted on 03/31/2010 5:30:58 AM PDT by fhayek
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To: All

Here’s a link to an amazing high resolution panoramic view from the same 86th floor observation deck in which this 21 -year old leaped:

(Size: 1.5 MB, Dimensions: 7,979px × 740px)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Skyline-New-York-City.jpg


24 posted on 03/31/2010 5:31:27 AM PDT by ETL (ALL (most?) of the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
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To: Malone LaVeigh

What goes down sometimes stays there.


25 posted on 03/31/2010 5:31:52 AM PDT by tflabo (Restore the Republic)
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Bushes Fault...


26 posted on 03/31/2010 5:32:55 AM PDT by PA-RIVER
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To: Malone LaVeigh

What goes down sometimes stays there.


27 posted on 03/31/2010 5:33:30 AM PDT by tflabo (Restore the Republic)
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To: Bad Jack Bauer

Now that that’s public knowledge I bet you’ll see a bunch more copycats.


28 posted on 03/31/2010 5:34:05 AM PDT by DManA
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To: Bean Counter
-- Prayers for his soul should be directed to St. Rachel the Flattened. --

I am sooo naughty, ROTFL. That is funny.

Not that flattened and splattered people is, I find that sad, but that stained glass window is precious.

29 posted on 03/31/2010 5:34:57 AM PDT by Cboldt
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To: SouthDixie
Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

Exactly. I'm sure many of us, at one time or another, considered it, if even not very seriously. But then we toughed it out and made it through only to experience much happier times again. New York was in the midst of a miserable rain storm for the past two days. I'm sure that didn't help the guy's spirits.

30 posted on 03/31/2010 5:38:08 AM PDT by ETL (ALL (most?) of the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
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To: DManA
Now that that’s public knowledge I bet you’ll see a bunch more copycats.

It is public knowledge to anyone who has ever been up on that deck. You look down you can see where you can make it all the way down to the street and where you can't.
31 posted on 03/31/2010 5:38:55 AM PDT by Bad Jack Bauer (Fat and Bald? I was BORN fat and bald, thank you very much!)
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To: Puppage
Kids and their "youtube moments".

Ya made the big time kid, now who is paying for the cleanup?

32 posted on 03/31/2010 5:43:33 AM PDT by BallyBill (WARNING:Taking me serious could cause stress related illness.)
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To: Puppage

His favorite movie was King Kong —


33 posted on 03/31/2010 5:44:00 AM PDT by Uncle Chip (TRUTH : Ignore it. Deride it. Allegorize it. Interpret it. But you can't ESCAPE it.)
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To: Puppage

If you elect John Kerry, HE will walk again!! I can fly, I can fly, I can f................!


34 posted on 03/31/2010 5:47:19 AM PDT by Doc Savage (SOBAMP!)
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To: PA-RIVER

Yes! Was Dick Cheney seen hanging around there yesterday?


35 posted on 03/31/2010 5:51:11 AM PDT by joethedrummer
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To: DManA

Must have bounced off. Notice how flat the body is, Rachael Corrie style?


36 posted on 03/31/2010 5:54:15 AM PDT by CholeraJoe ("We are as numerous as the stars in the heavens, and we are all gun-men.")
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To: Puppage

Remember the urban legend about killing someone by throwing a penny off the Empire State Building? This is just a more extreme example of the principle.


37 posted on 03/31/2010 5:54:56 AM PDT by Loyalist (Toyota has recalled this tagline to fix cracks in its image.)
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To: Puppage

Must be the weather.

Some dude offed himself at the Bullet hole shooting range in Belleville NJ last night about the same time roughly 10 miles away.


38 posted on 03/31/2010 5:55:36 AM PDT by Malsua
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To: Malsua

That’s not gunna be good for business.


39 posted on 03/31/2010 5:57:32 AM PDT by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: Puppage
That’s not gunna be good for business.

They'll be open by noon today. Someone did the same at Brick Armory in Lakewood NJ a few weeks ago and they were open the next day. It's not the fault of the business and it wasn't someone shooting someone else.

40 posted on 03/31/2010 6:00:12 AM PDT by Malsua
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