Death plunge in Midtown
A DISTRAUGHT woman jumped to her death from a hotel near Central Park on Tuesday, letting go from a ledge about 170 feet above the pavement — even as emergency workers tried to talk her out of it.
The woman jumped just before 3 p.m. from 1 Hotel Central Park on Sixth Ave. at 58th St. in Midtown after police and firefighters rushed to the scene about 2:20 p.m. “I was coming out of the building and saw people looking up. There were firemen there trying to talk her out of jumping,” said David Horowitch, 60.
“It almost looked like she slipped. She somersaulted. It was a sound I never want to hear again . . . . Then I looked away.”
New York University student Brendan Walsh, 21, watched as police got a brief window of time to speak with her.
“One officer came. He talked to her for maybe one minute,” he said.
“She just let go, fell backwards. From the beginning she was just a hair away from falling. It wasn’t one of those situations where someone is sitting on the bridge and wants to talk.”
Police had not released the woman’s identity as of late afternoon Tuesday. The hotel declined to say whether she was staying there. The hotel’s standard rooms go for about $800 a night.