An investigation is underway after a 20-year-old woman apparently jumped to her death from the roof of a Times Square hotel after a disturbance in the room where she was staying left the place trashed, police said Wednesday.
According to the NYPD, cops got multiple 911 calls about a 10th-floor disturbance at OYO Hotel 157 W 47th Street in midtown Manhattan. Those came in around 10 p.m. Tuesday, as Juan Gamboa and his wife described hearing a heated argument.
"We heard the windows broken, and a lot of noise. Like somebody fighting next door," Gamboa said.
The fight continued into the hallway, and another woman tried to intervene.
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"He like jumps up and runs after me. I run back into our room, and he tries to put his hand in the door and my husband shits the door on his hand," said the woman, who did not wish to be identified.
Witnesses said that the woman who was attacked ran up to the roof. Shortly thereafter, cops got the call about the roof jump. Her body was later discovered on second-floor scaffolding.
Police encountered 24-year-old Tyler Griffin in the lobby. Officers had to shock him with a stun gun multiple times as they took him into custody, then transported him to Bellevue Hospital in what they described to be an emotionally disturbed state.
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The room where the couple from Colorado had been staying was left trashed, investigators said, as if there had been some kind of melee. Griffin was accused of hitting his girlfriend during the argument.
Cops say they're investigating the possibility Griffin attacked the woman before she jumped but they do not believe at this point that he threw her or pushed her off the building, authorities say.
The woman's identity has not been released. There was a baby less than a year old with her and Griffin, police said. The child was handed off to a stranger during the course of the incident and was not harmed.
Police say charges are pending against Griffin, which may pertain to potential child endangerment or the possible assault investigation. No other details were immediately available.
