What we know about former One Direction member Liam Payne’s death
Former One Direction band member Liam Payne died at age 31 on Wednesday after falling from the third floor of the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, according to police. The exact circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation.
Here’s what we know:
911 call
On Wednesday, hotel staff requested urgent police assistance shortly before Payne fell, according to an emergency call obtained by CNN’s local affiliate Todo Noticias.
Police said in a statement later that day that personnel rushed to the hotel just after 5 p.m. local time in response to an emergency call warning of an “aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”
“We have a guest who is overwhelmed with drugs and alcohol,” the front desk manager said on the call. “He breaks things up. He is tearing the whole room apart.”
The manager said they needed “someone to be sent to us urgently,” as staff didn’t know “if the guest’s life is at risk.”
Hotel staff could not enter the room, where the guest had been staying “for two or three days,” the manager said on the call.
Investigation
On Thursday, the public prosecutor’s office in Argentina said in a statement that it is investigating Payne’s case and that “everything indicates that the musician was alone when the fall occurred and was experiencing some kind of episode due to substance abuse.”
On Wednesday, Buenos Aires police had said in a statement to The Associated Press that Payne “had jumped from the balcony of his room,” without elaborating on how that conclusion was reached or whether the jump was intentional.
When reached by CNN on Thursday, Pablo Policicchio, communications director for the Buenos Aires Police, declined to clarify the statement provided to AP and referred CNN to the prosecutor’s office for more information.
Payne’s injuries suggest he might not have been fully conscious at the time of his fall, the public prosecutor’s report suggested. “Due to the position in which the body was found and the injuries from the fall, it is presumed that Payne did not adopt a reflexive posture to protect himself and may have fallen in a state of semi or total unconsciousness,’” it read.
The public prosecutor’s report added that a series of substances were seized in Payne’s Buenos Aires hotel room that might “indicate a prior situation of alcohol and drug consumption.”
