A man died after he fell from a 20-foot wall overlooking the Civic Center Bus Station in downtown Denver just as people set up food booths near A Taste of Colorado festival Saturday morning, authorities say.
The man, described as being in his early 20s, was rushed to Denver Health Medical Center in full respiratory arrest, said Lt. Phil Champagne, Denver fire spokesman.
Denver police spokeswoman Raquel Lopez said Saturday evening that detectives told her it appeared the man committed suicide. She said the death is listed as a “suspected suicide”. The investigation is on-going, she added.
The man’s name has not been released.
Kay Wolfe, 70, who has at a booth called Kay’s Kitchen, where she is giving tastes of her bacon jam on Ritz crackers, said she heard a thud and quickly looked in time to see a man lying on the ground. It was 9:21 a.m.
The man, wearing a gray shirt and blue pants, lifted himself up to a sitting position on one arm and then collapsed, Wolfe said.
Eli Chavez, 34, who is working for A Taste of Colorado, ran to the spot at Lincoln Street and Colfax Avenue to see if he could help.
The fallen man had cracked his head open and was unconscious. A uniformed woman who worked for RTD was holding his head, Chavez said.
“I went to see if he was OK,” he said. “There was a lot of blood. He wasn’t moving. It’s crazy. He was probably showing off.”
Wolfe said there were several highly intoxicated people loitering above the bus station, causing a minor disturbance.
When a festival security officer warned two very drunken men to leave, one of the two men wearing a gray shirt unzipped his pants and urinated right there on the ground, Wolfe said.
She said its not clear whether that was the same man who fell.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, or
