SAN DIEGO — The death of a man whose parachute failed to deploy during a late-night "base-jumping" attempt off a 23-story University City residential high-rise was under investigation Wednesday.
The fatal fall at Palisade at Westfield UTC, at 8800 Lombard Place, was reported shortly before 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to the San Diego Police Department.
Paramedics tried in vain to revive the base jumper before pronouncing him dead at the scene, SDPD Officer Sarah Foster said. His name was withheld pending family notification.
The man was believed to have jumped from a high balcony or the roof of the structure, Foster said.
Base jumping is a recreational sport in which participants parachute off fixed objects rather than from planes. It's considered a particularly dangerous "extreme" sport.
"Danger is associated with height when actually that's a big misconception," said Johnni Dijulius, an avid base jumper. "The lower something is, the more dangerous it is,"
Dijulius says base jumpers jump at night because their extreme sport is against the law.
For them, Dijulius says, it requires a lot of specialized skills.
"Skydiving you have two parachutes. With base jumping, you don't have time for two parachutes, unfortunately," said Dijulius. "So, if you jump off an object, if you do - God forbid have a malfunction - you only have one parachute to work with."
At the time of the interview, Dijulius hadn’t heard of anyone in the base jumping community losing their life recently.
"That's either somebody that's been jumping for a long time with a lot of skill or somebody that didn't know what they were doing or getting into," said Dijulius.
Once Dijulius saw pictures and videos from the Palisades Apartments and the surrounding area, he said he could see why the building was jumpable because of the overhang at the top.
Police haven't identified the victim yet only telling CBS 8 that it was a 48-year-old man and his 16-year-old daughter was there and saw the event unfold.
Dijulius says, base jumpers know the risks.
"It's a selfish thing. You got a family. You got parents. You got kids. You got brothers and sisters and you're choosing to put them in a pretty vulnerable place worrying about you."
Captain Scott Wahl with San Diego Police says they've seen these types of stunts before.
"The intent behind having the ordinance in place is to deter people from doing. There are consequences for a successful jump and consequences for an unsuccessful jump are life and death. Sometimes you'll see them at the cliffs, other buildings or bridges in San Diego," said Wahl. "The police department isn't always notified when there's a successful jump. We're only called when things don't go as planned."
Palisades residents who didn't want to go on camera tell CBS 8 this isn't the first time their building has been used for base jumpers.
However, this is just the first time the jump wasn't successful and they don't want to see this happen again.
Elsa Gonzalez visits relatives in the building regularly.
"I heard of those kind of stunts but from buildings in downtown but way higher. Chances are, still risky, but not as bad as this one," said Gonzalez. "This one, you don't even have time for the parachute or anything he was with to open."
Police have not released a cause of death or the victims name as of this story’s airing.
SDPD cautions base jumpers and anyone thinking of trying these stunts to consider the wider reaching impact to their family, friends, witnesses and first responders after unsuccessful jumps.
They say the tragedy is avoidable and those who see it are forever left with horrific images.