Man falls to his death from Los Angeles skyscraper
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An electrician, who was on just his second day working at what will be Los Angeles' tallest skyscraper, plunged more than 50 floors to his death, onto a busy city intersection that hummed with a normal weekday's bustle.
It took some time for people below to realize the horror of what had happened, said Los Angeles Times photographer Mel Melcon, who was on assignment at the building.
"No one thought it was a body," Melcon told his paper. "We heard no screams."
The man fell 53 stories – about 800 feet – Thursday from the unfinished Wilshire Grand Center, and landed on a passing car, Los Angeles police said. He was not supposed to be above the third floor, construction company officials said.
He had taken off his hard hat and had not been wearing a safety harness because it wasn't required for the bottom floors he was working on, said Lisa Gritzner, spokeswoman for Turner Construction, the main contractor on the project. She could say no more about what may have caused the man to fall or why he was on the upper floor. His name has not been released.
The car he struck appeared to be undamaged, but a rear side panel was splattered with blood, officials said.