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
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.
Fortunate for him he esacaped the Obama regime.
Some acquaintances of my family were at the Wachovia Tower here in NC, decades ago, when a deranged man broke down the door to the roof and jumped off, over the “V” for victory, supposedly.
He bounced once and then splattered. Shook the floor many stories up, he was a large person.
I’ll have my hash browns smothered, covered and scattered. I just can’t go for “flattened and splattered”.....!
Are the ledges large enough that a fallen body would stop, rather than rolling on to fall another level?
Also I think they need more than a “ten foot spiked fence.” The deck should be completely enclosed at the top too.
Disproved by the Mythbusters. Smarts a bit, but won't kill you.
Empire State Building guard made futile bid to save leaper
By TODD VENEZIA and MURRAY WEISS
April 1, 2010
A security guard desperately tried to talk a 23-year-old Yale student out of committing suicide, moments before the young man leaped from the 86th-floor observation deck at the Empire State Building Tuesday, police sources said.
The guard shouted "You don't have to do this!" to Cameron Dabaghi -- the son of two doctors from Austin, Texas -- but he ignored the pleas and plunged to his death at about 6:30 p.m., police sources said.
The death of the junior, who majored in East Asian Studies at the Ivy League school, stunned pals because he seemed happy.
Cops found a note in his dorm room that said he was "sorry" and that he intended to either jump from the Empire State Building or the George Washington Bridge..."
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/futile_bid_to_save_leaper_84S7x6GgyIRJ8TYMr7MtON
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