Posted on 03/31/2010 4:30:45 PM PDT by raybbr
A man who jumped off the Empire State building in New York City Tuesday has been identified as a 21-year-old Yale University student.
Cameron Dabaghi was a junior at Berkeley College, according to university spokesman Thomas Conroy. He was from Austin, Texas.
"Yale is extending support to Cameron's family, roommates and friends at this most difficult time," he said.
The master and dean of the college are meeting with students today to mourn together and comfort one another, Conroy said. Counselors from Yale University Health services have gone to the college and are available "around the clock" for any students or other members of the community.
"The university will inform students and others of additional opportunities to remember Cameron as plans are finalized," Conroy said.
Officers were dispatched to 34th Street and Fifth Avenue at 6:19 p.m.. Dabaghi was pronounced dead at the scene.
(Excerpt) Read more at courant.com ...
I have a son his age. This is just a terrible tragedy. Prayers up for his family.
That joke was voted the world’s funniest.
That’s one way to get out of repaying student loans.
Well I was going to suggest “Da-ba-gee.”
It's not the fall...it's the sudden stop.
Hell, statistically, 20 feet will do it 50 % of the time.
Physics experiment?
A friend of mine once took a trip to New York city. On her first outing to see the sights, a jumper landed on the sidewalk right in front of her.
Ruined her whole trip, and she never returned.
A friend of mine once took a trip to New York city. On her first outing to see the sights, a jumper landed on the sidewalk right in front of her.
Ruined her whole trip, and she never returned.
The top of the Empire State Building is set back from the base; there are several ledges on the way down. I would have expected him to land on a ledge unless, having clambered over the observation deck fence, he kicked himself away strongly. (But, are the ledges slightly canted away from the building to assist in shedding precipitation? So, plop, roll, plop, roll, plop, roll, etc.?)
Someone has a lot of time on their hands to catalog all that.
Being quite thoroughly gone, he can’t tell us why. No report of a suicide note. God knows. Bad drug trip? Some new twist on jihadi terrorism? Most depressed people who feel moved to suicide don’t do the dastardly deed in a publicly spectacular manner, or at least avoid risking random other victims.
FWIW, they ought to totally enclose the observation deck on the Empire State and similar jump-enticing buildings, in fencing too tight to climb through.
This is really a tragedy. Child of 2 physicians, perhaps 1st generation American.... likely expectations (if not from others, surely from him) were extraordinarily high. In a tough academic environment at ivy league school far from home. Perhaps academic pressures and/or social issues (we obviously don’t know) may have made this young man’s perspective to get blown way out of proportion. The issue of suicide in college students is much more severe than most people would recognize or discuss. And it seems to be an especially great affliction in the “high achievers” who put incredibly great degrees of pressure on themselves. I’m a physician with 2 college student kids - keeping their perspective as “grounded” as possible is critically important to my wife and me. And, 1 of my house-mates from medical school committed suicide a few years after we graduated.
Say a prayer for this troubled young soul and his family. Shame on those who would try to score cheap political or schaudenfreude points in such a terrible situation.
Agreed. The trend to starting kids on stuffing their resumes by getting into the “right” preschool and “enrichment” activities, and never letting up, is killing our society. I honestly thing it’s very nearly as destructive as the multigenerational welfare’n’drugs lifestyle.
In Manhattan, even apparently normal people (like some former co-workers of mine) have been persuaded that it makes sense to hire an “education consultant” to market their kid for the private kindergarten application process. The consultants are advising parents which sports they should start their preschoolers training in, based on demographic studies showing which sports will be in short supply in the year the child will be applying to college. Hence 4 year olds are are arriving at appointments with their education consultant, straight from their morning squash lesson (private instruction, of course). I’m not exaggerating — a former co-worker of mine who was going the education consultant route (but not the preschool sports grooming route) actually found himself and his tot sharing a waiting room at the consultant’s office with a 4 year old who’d just come from his squash lesson. Amazingly, a couple of years ago, BOWLING was being pushed by the consultants — not surprisingly, there weren’t a whole lot of competitive bowlers coming through the ranks of elite prep schools, and apparently there are some very desirable colleges that field bowling teams.
I read that Cameron Dabaghi attended Deerfield Academy (Massachusetts boarding school) before Yale. So he’s been far from home for a long, long time, with busy parents paying the hefty bills for him to knock himself out stuffing his resume. Apparently no school in the Austin area could possibly look good enough on his college applications. I really wonder sometimes why more of them don’t end it all.
Empire State Building security guards couldn’t stop Yale jumper Cameron Dabaghi
Security at the Empire State Building Thursday remained tight days after the suicide of a Yale student who plunged off the skyscraper’s 86th floor.
“It might be easier to stop a plane than keep a person from doing what he wants to do,” said one guard.
“We have all sorts of security measures in place. It’s not like we didn’t try to stop him,” he continued.
About six maroon-suited security guards stood watch on the 86th floor observation deck Thursday, barking at sightseers who stood on railings or ledges to get down.
Only seven people were on the observation deck Tuesday when Cameron Dabaghi, of Austin, Tex., leaped off the north side of the landmark tower.
It wasn’t clear how many guards were on duty because their bosses, expecting a slow day because of the rainy weather, told several guards to stay home.
Still, cops and guards said at least one watchman tried to stop the 21-year-old Dabaghi from scaling the deck’s spiked 10-foot-high fence.
“It wasn’t quick. We tried to talk him down for a while. It’s not easy to get over these gates for a reason,” another guard said, refusing to give his name because of orders from building management.
Friends, family ‘floored’ by Yale junior’s leap off Empire State Building observation deck A brainy Yale junior who plunged 86 floors to his death from the Empire State Building left behind a tragic suicide note apologizing for killing himself.
The reason 21-year-old Cameron Dabaghi took his life remains a mystery - especially to his pals on campus and loving family in Austin, Tex.
“It’s absolutely shocking,” said Jack Newman, founder of the Austin Tennis Academy and Dabaghi’s coach for more than five years. “You couldn’t ask for a better, smarter guy. He was a rock star and all the things you’d want in a student.”
“I’ve had thousands of students, and this was the one who you thought was going to change the world,” Newman said.
“There’s just no reason I can think of for this. The family is close ... and the parents were wonderfully supportive. Everyone’s just floored.”
Dabaghi’s sad, final apology was found in his residence hall room in New Haven, a police source said Wednesday. He wrote that he was heading to New York to leap from either the George Washington Bridge or the Empire State Building.
There were seven people on the 86th-floor observation deck of the building when Dabaghi climbed the 10-foot-high spiked safety barrier about 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, police said.
One person tried to talk him down, but moments later, he crashed down onto W. 34th St.
News of his dramatic end rocked the campus - and left his friends asking why.
“Everyone is in shock,” said pal Tommy Meyerson, a former roommate who last saw Dabaghi on Monday night.
“He was joking around. He never mentioned anything about being upset or going to New York. He missed class yesterday, but I didn’t think anything of it.”
Dabaghi was an East Asian studies major and co-captain of the men’s club tennis team; he was also a world traveler who studied in China and Taiwan.
Before getting into Yale, he attended Deerfield Academy, a tony boarding school in Massachusetts.
Friends said Dabaghi was an amateur space photographer who felt under constant pressure to perform well at school - but nothing any of them thought out of the ordinary for the Ivy League.
His younger sister, Andrene, is a sophomore at Yale, and his older brother, Kendall, is a Duke graduate and Fulbright scholar. Their doctor parents, Shad Dabaghi and Janet Lindsey, live in an elite lakeside gated neighborhood in Austin.
More than 100 students held a candlelight vigil at Yale’s Berkeley College last night in memory of Dabaghi.
“I needed to ensure that he was remembered as he deserves - as a selfless and thoughtful individual who shaped who I am today,” his sister told the mourners.
“What Cameron needs to know is what you see before you. He was loved. He was never alone. And he will always be my brother.”
At least 34 people have jumped to their deaths from the Empire State Building since it opened in 1931. The most recent was in April 2007.
friends also noted Dabaghi’s sharp, sometimes sarcastic wit, as well as his eye for planning elaborate pranks. Last year, his friends recalled, Dabaghi broke into the Berkeley dining hall and rearranged all the tables to create more space for the chairs. Meyerson also described how Dabaghi crashed the Directed Studies final exam during their freshman year.
“He took the test for about 45 minutes,” he said. “Then, right in the middle, he jumps out of his seat, dramatically rips up his test and said, ‘I can’t take it anymore!’ ”
Eli Bildner ’10, who was last semester’s captain of the club tennis team, of which Dabaghi was a member, said Dabaghi never did anything halfway. Once, Bildner remembered, Dabaghi and a fellow teammate snuck into Arthur Ashe stadium — the 22,547-seat tennis court in New York City — during a team trip. Not only did Dabaghi play on the court, but he explored the players’ lounge, worked out in the private gym and took a shower.
Shocked tourists watched in horror as a student from one of America’s top Ivy League universities jumped to his death from the 86th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building.
Yale University junior Cameron Dabaghi, 21, got a running start and scrambled over a ten-foot-high spiked fence before leaping off the ledge.
Incredibly sad. He needed a lot of help, but nobody saw it.
He was excellent at hiding his hurt. Tough outer veneer.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.