Some Guy Jumped off the Empire State Building

yesterday??? After he applied for a job at showtime... He jumped..

He has been the 30th person to jump to thier death since the building was built.

That is a horrible way to die.

I'm surprised FH didn't hear anything. he works right there!

He was actually visiting Showtime Temps...a temp agency. He walked into the office, into someone else's office, opened the window and lept. He landed on the 72nd floor observation deck, which is closed. If he hadn't, people probably would have been killed on the sidewalk below.

Deadly plunge

Horror at Empire State

By GREG GITTRICH, SONI SANGHA and JOSE MARTINEZ
DAILY NEWS WRITERS


Passersby on Fifth Ave. and 34th St. look up side of the Empire State Building after suicide leap.

Minutes after filling out a job application, a man took a fatal leap yesterday from the 80th floor of the Empire State Building - as two workers desperately tried to stop him, police said.
The man wriggled free, slamming into a ledge on the 72nd floor of the landmark skyscraper just moments after he filled out an application inside the 80th-floor office of Showtime Pictures.

'He was sitting on the window [ledge],' said one distraught witness. 'The window was closed, but he opened it and took the mesh off.'

Police said the man, believed to be in his 20s, went looking for work at Showtime, which handles the tourist photography concessions at the landmark skyscraper.

But after identifying himself as Theodore Harkins Wiltbank - a name police had yet to confirm last night - he leaped eight stories to his death from nearly 1,000 feet above Fifth Ave.

'One of the security guards had the guy by the feet, but he was kicking,' said Will Kinard, who spoke with a friend from the 80th floor photo company.

The apparent suicide at 11:40 a.m. kept tourists in an extended wait to get up to the building's 86th-floor observation deck.

'We were all very angry,' said Stacie Harris, 26, who wanted to celebrate her engagement atop the Empire State Building. 'We kind of knew [building officials] weren't telling us exactly what was going on.'

Offices on the 80th and 72nd floors remained open as police worked to identify the dead man.

'The ownership and management conveys its deepest sympathies to the young man's family,' said Howard Rubenstein, a spokesman for the building. 'We are extremely sorry to learn of this tragedy that occurred in one of our tenant's offices.'

But some workers in the building weren't surprised that the skyscraper was used to enable a suicide. Since the building opened in 1931, more than 30 people have killed themselves there.

Officials at Showtime Pictures declined to comment.

Originally published on February 18, 2004

that is horrible

It is weird that when you go to the top of the bldg, there are no guards or anything on the windows. Last time I was there one of the windows was actually open as you went up to the observation deck. Too scary for me, I would not even go near it- but others on the tour were sticking their heads out and everything.

OMG

Not for nothing, but jumping from something that high...what happens if on the way down you changed your mind?

so sad

The apparent suicide at 11:40 a.m. kept tourists in an extended wait to get up to the building's 86th-floor observation deck.

'We were all very angry,' said Stacie Harris, 26, who wanted to celebrate her engagement atop the Empire State Building. 'We kind of knew [building officials] weren't telling us exactly what was going on.'



Is this girl kidding me? She was mad she couldn't celebrate when a person just died

i worked down the block from there and yesterday at that time we heard tons of sirens.....and then i read the article today. so tragic.

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Posted by KCDC

Not for nothing, but jumping from something that high...what happens if on the way down you changed your mind?

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thats an irreversible decision....
very very sad...
prayers to his family and friends...

That is so sad.

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Posted by Stacey1403

The apparent suicide at 11:40 a.m. kept tourists in an extended wait to get up to the building's 86th-floor observation deck.

'We were all very angry,' said Stacie Harris, 26, who wanted to celebrate her engagement atop the Empire State Building. 'We kind of knew [building officials] weren't telling us exactly what was going on.'



Is this girl kidding me? She was mad she couldn't celebrate when a person just died

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that girl is such a jerk....