Man leaps off hotel roof to his death

A man died after he jumped from the roof of the Westin South Coast

Plaza Hotel in Costa Mesa on Thursday afternoon, officials said.

It is not known how the man, whom officials did not identify Thursday,

climbed to the roof of the 16-story hotel, said Costa Mesa Police Lt.

Dale Birney.

Police received the call about 2 p.m. Negotiators talked to the man,

who was standing at the edge of the building for about 2 1/2 hours.

The man, wearing a white shirt and dark-colored pants, seemed agitated

as he listened to negotiators, stepping side to side. He looked down

several times and often seemed to be looking at his watch as if to check

the time.

Birney said the last known incident of a person jumping off one of the

neighborhood’s high-rise buildings was in the 1980s.

“Since then, these buildings have been policing themselves and have

restricted or banned roof access,” he said. “We have no idea how this

person got up there.”

It is the second such incident this year in the city. A 46-year-old

homeless man died in January after he hurled himself out a window of the

Bethel Towers on West 19th Street.