A hotel worker called 911 to request urgent assistance before musician Liam Payne fell to his death from the third floor of the building in Buenos Aires on Wednesday.
The 31-year-old British singer and former member of the boy band One Direction died after he “jumped from the balcony of his room,” Buenos Aires Security Ministry Communications Director Pablo Policicchio told the Associated Press. He added that police had been called to the Casa Sur Hotel in the Argentine capital after receiving an emergency call shortly after 5 p.m. local time about an “aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”
A transcript of a 911 call published by the BBC shows a worker at the hotel telling the operator that they have “a guest who is high on drugs and who is trashing the room” and the staff therefore “need someone to come.”
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The operator asks the caller to confirm the guest in question is “being aggressive” and to repeat the name of the hotel, but the call gets disconnected before the caller can answer. In a second call, the employee explains the problem again and expresses concern that the guest could be in serious danger.
“Well, we’ve got a guest who has had too many drugs and alcohol and, well, when he is conscious he is trashing the entire room and we need you to send someone, please,” the caller says.
When asked to repeat the name of the hotel, the caller restates the name and adds: “We need you to send someone urgently because, well, I don’t know whether his life, may be in danger, the guest’s life. He is in a room with a balcony and well, we’re a little afraid that he…”
The caller goes on to identify himself as Esteban, the hotel’s chief receptionist. He also asks if the operator is sending the police or just the emergency medical service (SAME), asking for “just the SAME” to come. “You told me that [the guest] is under the influence of drugs and alcohol and the SAME doesn’t go in alone,” the operator says. The call ends soon after.
Alberto Crescenti, the head of SAME, said Payne was found at the hotel with “injuries incompatible with life,” according to Argentina’s La Nacion newspaper. He added that Payne had fallen from “almost 14 meters” or 46 feet, saying there was “no possibility of resuscitation.” The singer was declared dead at the scene.
The newspaper also reported that about six minutes passed between the 911 call and Payne’s death.
