A man who fell 60 feet off a ledge to his death at Red Rocks Amphitheatre during the Ben Harper concert appeared intoxicated, a witness said Thursday.
“He was hoisting himself up on a railing to sit down or rest, and within a split second he swayed and he was gone,” said a shaken Kathrine Warren, 19. “There was no sound from him, no scream as he was falling, nothing.”
Investigators are having difficulty identifying the man, who fell Wednesday night.
Homicide investigators were assigned to the case, but by initial appearances it was an accidental death, said Denver police Detective John White.
Police had no information as to whether the man was intoxicated, and a Denver coroner’s representative could not be reached for comment.
“As of late this afternoon, the coroner’s office had still not identified him,” White said Thursday.
The man appeared to be in his mid- to late 20s and didn’t appear to be with anybody, said Warren, a student at the University of Colorado at Boulder who attended the concert with her mother. “He was by himself, nobody was following him, and during the whole ordeal there was no one searching for him and no one recognized him,” Warren said.
A spokeswoman with Denver’s division of Theatres and Arenas said the man fell from the top of the south ramp that enters the amphitheater. He was hoisting himself up to sit on a railing when he went over the edge backward, the spokeswoman, Anne Williams, said.
Security and rescue personnel assigned to the concert found the man in some bushes and administered CPR. He was airlifted by helicopter to St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver, Williams said.
“I’ve researched the last 12 years, and I cannot find any other incident similar to this,” Williams said. “There have been minor things that happen, but as far as major incidents go, this is pretty isolated and very out of the ordinary. It’s still shocking to us.”
There were 10 police officers, five paramedics, two firefighters and 75 event staff members assigned to work the concert, Williams added.
Warren said the accident occurred about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, at the tail end of the concert as Ben Harper performed an encore and fans began trickling out.
She said she paid special notice to the man because he appeared to be intoxicated.
“He stumbled by us and appeared very intoxicated, and he was holding on to the hand railing like he couldn’t stand up straight,” she said. “It was just astounding to us that he still had a pulse when they flew him out after falling from that height.”
Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-820-1190 or mgonzales@denverpost.com.
