Two Angels players stand outside the hotel where they were staying when a man jumped to his death. (G.N. MIller/NY Post)
A Manhattan man jumped to his death from the 42nd floor of a posh Midtown hotel early this morning — horrifying Los Angeles Angels baseball players who were boarding the team bus for Yankee Stadium.
The unidentified 39-year-old leapt from the top floor pool area of the Le Parker Meridien at 7:55 a.m., his body bouncing off the curb and landing on West 56th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues, police sources said.
“It’s terrible,” said Angels’ star outfielder Torii Hunter, who, along with the rest of the team, left the hotel about an hour after the apparent suicide on their way to take on the Yankees for Opening Day.
Catcher Jeff Mathis told The Post: “I didn’t even know what had happened but it’s kind of scary to see it.”
The man, described as wearing jeans, a jacket and sneakers, was not a guest of the hotel and had apparently gained access by asking employees if he could view the pool area, sources said. The pool is part of the ritzy hotel’s Gravity Fitness Center.
Truck driver Michael Norizsan, of Long Island, was parked a mere 20 yards from where the body crashed onto the asphalt.
“I was sitting in my van, it was pretty quiet in the street, then I saw a flash of something falling down, and then ‘boom,'” he said.
“It was so loud I thought it was the facade of the building, but then I looked down and saw it wasn’t debris. There was a face attached to it, and I couldn’t believe it.”
Angels autograph hunter Stewart Gordon, of Queens, was standing outside the Meridien and described the noise of the man hitting the ground as a “gun shot.”
“I turned around and there was a body sprawled on the ground,” he said.
Cops closed that stretch of West 56th Street until the body was removed from the scene about 11:30 am.
Hotel officials declined to comment.