By J. PATRICK PEPPER
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN — A man with a history of mental troubles fell to his death last week in a suspected suicide at the Hyatt Regency Dearborn.
Police said the 28-year-old Port Huron resident registered a room at the hotel on Aug. 9. Shortly before midnight the following evening, he climbed over a 10th-floor guardrail and jumped to the lobby below.
People inside the ground-floor Archimedes bar heard a loud crash and discovered the man’s body inside one of the building’s open-air elevator shafts, police said. The impact smashed a glass partition wall separating the shaft from the lobby floor, police said. No one has come forward to say they witnessed the fall, but no foul play is suspected. The victim’s name is being withheld pending full notification of his family.
The incident marks the second suicide at the upscale hotel in recent years. In a strikingly similar occurrence in 2007, a man who was staying at the hotel for a conference jumped over the 11th-floor guardrail and fell through the atrium to his death.
Hyatt officials in a prepared statement said they are cooperating with authorities and referred questions to police.
“We are saddened by the event that occurred at the hotel (last week) and our thoughts go out to those who have been affected by this terrible situation,” the statement said.
Somewhat ironically, the hotel in April hosted an event for the Detroit-Wayne County Mental Health Agency titled, “Stop Suicide! Third Annual Suicide Prevention Conference,” which focused on suicide-prevention methods and outreach programs.