A 30-year-old man died at Carle Foundation Hospital on Thursday after falling from the 18th floor of the Burnham 310 apartment complex that morning, according to a press release from the Champaign County coroner’s office.
According to the release, Jeronymo Pereira, a Ph.D candidate from the University, was pronounced dead at 1:50 p.m. Thursday due to the traumatic injuries he sustained from the fall.
“At approximately 9:09 a.m. this morning, police received a report of a man observed jumping from an 18th story window at 310 East Springfield Avenue,” said Rene Dunn, spokeswoman for the Champaign Police Department.
Champaign Police Sgt. Jim Rein said the man jumped out the 18th floor window of a common hallway in the apartment building and landed onto an adjoining four story building. The man jumped off that building as well, falling onto the sidewalk below.
Dunn said upon arrival at the scene, officers discovered a broken window on the 18th floor and a fire extinguisher on the roof below, suggesting that the extinguisher was used to break the window.
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The man survived the two jumps and was rushed to Carle Foundation Hospital, Rein said.
“The Champaign Police Department and the coroner’s office are currently investigating this case as a probable suicide,” Dunn said.
No autopsy will be performed, but a toxicology report has been issued. The results are still pending.
University employee Torsten Hoefler was biking to work when he saw the man jump from the building, according to his blog.
Hoefler wrote that the man jumped around 9:10 a.m. Thursday morning. It took less than 60 seconds before ambulance sirens were heard, he said.
The apartment building, which opened last year, is one of the tallest in Champaign, according to the City of Champaign Planning Department.
Burnham 310 representatives declined to comment, as the situation was still being investigated.
Periera was a student in the Structural Engineering and Structural Mechanics Program at the University, with a fellowship in Computational Science and Engineering.
