A 24-year-old daredevil photographer fell to his death as he tried to take a snapshot atop Midtown’s swanky Four Seasons Hotel on December 30, 2015.
Connor Cummings, of Rockaway, N.J., and 18-year-old pal Dimitri Olivares managed to get onto an upper floor of the landmark hotel overlooking Central Park, despite not being guests there, police said.
They then climbed scaffolding in an interior shaft leading to the roof of the 52-story luxury E. 57th St. hotel, police sources said.
Cummings was about to step through a hatch that would have given him access to the roof when he slipped and fell nine stories, crashing onto a 43rd-floor landing, police said.
He died at the scene.
Olivares, who was not injured, panicked, scaled back down the shaft and fled without telling anyone what happened, police sources said.
He was in a cab about 10 blocks away from the hotel when he had a change of heart, returned to the hotel and told both his mother and hotel security what had happened. He was later questioned and released by cops, officials said.
“It’s a real tragedy,” said Olivares’ father as he dabbed tears from his eyes. “It’s so sad. It’s hard to understand. That’s all.”
Asked how his son was holding up, the elder Olivares replied, “He needs time right now.”
Relatives of the dead man were left reeling by the shocking fall.
“We’re trying to get answers,” Cummings’ aunt Kate Gentile told WABC. “They say that he went up the elevator, and then went up a stairway and then went out on a balcony.”
“He’s a young kid ... he’s a good kid,” she added. “They weren’t drinking or anything. They were taking a picture.”
Hotel spokeswoman Paula Dirks said staffers were “saddened” by Cummings’ death.
“Our thoughts are with the family of the deceased and we extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to them,” Dirks said in a statement.
Four Seasons guests were shocked by the mishap.
"I don't know how he would have gotten out there," said hotel guest Kevin Carroll, 53. "I opened the window in our room this morning and it only opened a couple of inches ... It's awful."
Source: The New York Daily News
