Student Leaps to Death from Brooklyn Heights Hotel

A 19-year-old acting student died from a fall from a Brooklyn Heights hotel on November 7.

Michael Simmons, a student at New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts in Manhattan, took the plunge from the eighth-story window at about 2:00 AM. Police are looking into whether Simmons had taken any psychedelic drugs before the incident.

Police quickly responded to the fall, but it was only after people had gathered around to photograph the gore.

The Monday after his death, a memorial of notes, prayers, and flowers was erected near where Simmons landed on Henry Street, just outside the St. George Hotel. Many students filtered in and out throughout the day, some very upset.

There is no indication whether the death is a suicide or an accident at this time, though rumors are abound that Simmons had ingested drugs earlier in the evening. An autopsy is being performed.

Simmons, an Arizona native only in New York for a couple of months, is survived by both of his parents and two siblings, sisters aged 8 and 22.

Source - The Brooklyn Paper, "Death plunge at the St. George Hotel"