Fatal Leap From High-Rise Stuns Office Workers

Office workers were still traumatized Wednesday by the suicide earlier this week of a man who jumped to his death from high atop a building and landed on the sidewalk in a shower of broken glass.

Tin Wong, 39, a Los Angeles waiter, leaped to his death Monday from the 36th floor of the Bank of America Tower.

The suicide forced authorities to close 6th and Flower streets for four hours, tying up rush-hour traffic.

Wong broke a large window with a hammer, and jumped from the south side of the building at 555 S. Flower Street at 3:40 p.m. His body cracked granite tile on the sidewalk next to the building, said Det. Cliff Shepard.

“It was a miracle that no one down below was injured,” Shepard said. “Glass was scattered across 6th and Flower. It was like shrapnel.”

Wong had gone into the building with his father, Cheong Wong, 67, to find a restroom. While his father was in the restroom, Tin Wong went to an empty conference room, broke through a window and jumped.

Relatives told authorities Wong was unhappy about his financial situation, Shepard said.