Man, 84, leaps to his death at Staten Island Mall
An 84-year-old man leaped to his death from the second floor of the Staten Island Mall Tuesday, officials said.
The victim, whose name was not immediately released, jumped over a railing on the mall’s upper level and plummeted one story inside the New Springville shopping mecca about 11:15 a.m., cops and witnesses said.
The man brought a chair from the mall’s nearby food court to climb over the second floor railing. He landed in front of a Gap store, horrified witnesses said.
“He was lying face down, covered in a pool of blood,” said one food court worker, who would only identify herself as Tommy. “People were gathering around him. Nobody was really saying anything but the crowd kept getting bigger.”
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Other food court workers described the terrified reaction of shoppers.
“I just heard a thump, then people were screaming, kids were screaming,” said a food court worker who wished not to be named.
The victim was rushed to Staten Island University Hospital, where he died, cops said. He didn’t have a note on him.
“I go to footlocker and see a suicide at the Staten Island Mall,” witness Joe Pitta tweeted from inside the mall.
The victim was taken to Staten Island University Hospital North in critical condition, officials said.
(DeCrescenzo,Neil)
Police roped off the chair as they investigated the scene.
The mall was teeming with middle and high schoolers celebrating their last day of school, witnesses said.
“My 14-year-old daughter called me hysterical crying and told me that she had just witnessed someone commit suicide,” one woman, who would only identify herself as Teresa, told the Daily News. “She kept saying ‘Come get me! Come get me! I don’t want to be here.’ So I raced over and picked her up.”
“She caught it in the corner of her eye,” Teresa said. “At first she thought someone had thrown a bookbag over the railing, but then she looked and saw this guy covered in blood.”
Her daughter was too shaken up to talk to reporters, Teresa said.
“It was the last day of school…it was supposed to be a fun day,” she said. “Now she’s asking me ‘Why did he have to do that in a public place?’ I have to try and explain to her that we live in a crazy world.”
The Gap and several other stores near where the body landed were closed in the aftermath of the suicide.
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Man, 84, leaps to his death at Staten Island Mall
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