Window Washer Who Fell To His Death From Manhattan Building Wasn’t Wearing Safety Harness

A window washer who fell to his death from the fifth story of a Manhattan high rise on Tuesday reportedly fell because he failed to wear his safety harness, as he was supposed to.

Shocked onlookers watched as the man, whose identity has not yet been revealed, plunged to his death in Tribeca from a Hanover River House as he tried to clean a window at 335 Greenwich St.

One eye witness, Edin Arias, who happened to be working on a building opposite at the time told reporters about what unfolded and said.

“He was sitting outside the window, he was holding the window with the left hand and he was cleaning the window with his right hand. When I came down I opened the door to the van and I heard the noise and I just knew he fell down. I told him, ‘If you hear me, you need to move your head, because you know Jesus, he wants to give you one more chance,’ and he moved his head. I prayed for him.”

A second witness also saw the window washer working without a harness and was concerned for his safety.

“He was hanging backwards out of the window, washing it,” said Orie Cipollaro, “He was just lying there, he wasn’t moving at all. Everybody was in disbelief, they kept saying, ‘Oh no we didn’t just see that, we didn’t really see that,'” he said.

The window washer was taken by EMT’s to the nearby Presbyterian Hospital where he died soon after his arrival.

A third passerby, John Cataneo, also told reporters about what he saw, “People were calling 911. It was a really gruesome scene, his legs were twisted his arms were bent and he was bleeding from his hands, it was very gruesome,” he said.

What led to the window washer to not wear his safety harness has yet to be determined.