The tragic death of a Norwegian national, well known in the local foreign-resident community on the south of the island, occurred Thursday afternoon following a fall from the roof of his apartment block in Arguineguín, having allegedly been locked out during the night with his keys inside. Paramedics at the scene could do nothing to revive him due to the severity of the injuries. Death by misadventure is most likely say witnesses and investigators.
The main 112 Emergency and Security Coordinating Centre (CECOES) received an alert, shortly after 12 noon on Thursday, reporting that a man had fallen several meters from the top of a building located on Calle Juan Juana, next to the main Plaza Negra Market Square, in the municipality of Mogán.
The SUC ambulance crew who attended the scene, could only certify his tragic death, at approximately 12:30 according to sources close to the events, due to the severity of his injuries presented.
According to witnesses, the victim had allegedly climbed up onto the roof, located on the third floor of the building, in an attempt to enter his apartment on the second floor, having mistakenly locked himself out during the early hours of the morning. Sources say the man had tied a television antenna cable around his waste, which broke after he lost his balance, falling about eight meters to the pavement below.
A large deployment at the scene included a basic life support ambulance and another medicalised ambulance from the Canary Islands Emergency Service (SUC), Mogán Policia Local and Proteccion Civil, and the Guardia Civil were all in attendance. The healthcare professionals at the scene could do little more than to certify his death, after assessing his condition.
Guardia Civil Judicial Police, from the Puerto Rico de Gran Canaria main post, instructed the corresponding investigative procedures to determine the causes of death, although everything points to accidental death by misadventure, according to sources close to the investigation.
Close friends of the deceased, who contacted The Canary News directly, expressed concern having spent the evening beforehand with the man, who had appeared to be in an agitated state when leaving to go home ahead of 10pm curfew. According to one witness, who has also made a statement to the Guardia Civil, the victim had suffered a beating two weeks earlier, from another individual with whom he had previously been friends. This acquaintance had subsequently threatened him, said the victim, causing him to recently change the locks on his apartment for fear of further physical altercations.
The witness says he spent nearly two hours on the phone to the victim, during the early hours of Thursday morning, unable to go to him directly, due to curfew, but trying to console him, and advised him to call the police if he were at all concerned or felt threatened. Though these events could well have been a factor in the victim getting locked out of his apartment, investigators say they have no current reasons to suspect that yesterdays events, and tragic death, were anything more than the result of a heartbreaking and deadly error of judgement on the part of the victim himself. An awful accident.
Guardia Civil agents guarded the man’s body until it could be certified by the coroner before being removed and later transferred to the Institute of Legal Medicine in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where an autopsy will now be performed.
