A suicidal man jumped off a fourth floor ledge at the Cosmopolitan resort early Friday morning in Las Vegas. Witnesses contacting Las Vegas police said the unidentified 25 year old New Jersey man was threatening to jump from a ledge at the newest Strip resort at approximately 4:45 am. Police negotiators arrived at the resort shortly thereafter and attempted to talk the man down but the man jumped to his death shortly before 6:30 am. The suicide victim was rushed to the trauma unit at University Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

A police spokesperson said that suicide deaths of this type ( jumping off casinos ) are not common on the famed Strip. However, as reported in a previous LVE article , Las Vegas has long maintained one of the nation's highest suicide rates. Studies have indicated that Vegas visitors are twice as likely to commit suicide versus any other single locale.

Most Las Vegas Strip hotel rooms do not have balconies or accessible terraces and most room windows are completely inoperable or have very restricted openings (1 - 2"). The Cosmopolitan is unique in that approximately 2200 of the currently operating 2295 hotel rooms have private balconies. As of this writing, it is not known if the suicide victim utilized one of these balconies as a platform in his tragic death.

Sad...

Charles Higgins