Alina Polianskaya
The Independent
A thrill-seeker who posted pictures of himself doing backflips on top of skyscrapers on Instagram, has been found dead at the bottom of a building.
The body of Jackson Coe, 25, was discovered on the ground around the back of a six-storey apartment building in the West Village in Manhattan, New York.
Police said his injuries were consistent with a fall after he was found at at 160 Waverly Place near Grove Street, according to the New York Post.
A neighbour who had called an ambulance told the newspaper she discovered Coe at around 7.50am on Thursday.
Mr Coe regularly posted pictures of his thrill-seeking activities on social media.
One shot shows feet in red trainers hanging over the side of a tall building, capturing the scene with traffic far below.
A person believed to be his mother commented on the photo: “What the hell are you doing”.
Mr Coe replied: “Hahaha just on a roof”.
Other pictures showed him doing somersaults from places including a bridge and a cliff into the water.
The man, who reportedly lived in Brooklyn, had worked for food delivery site GrubHub and previously for endurance run company Tough Mudder.
A friend, Louis Con, posted a tribute on Instagram to Coe, saying: “You’ve left me with some of the best memories - I’m so sad that you won’t be able to bless us with more. Rest easy my brother.”
It is the latest in a series of deaths in recent years of daredevils who share their adventures on social media.
YouTube star Ryker Gamble died on 3 July along with two friends after an accident at Shannon falls in Canada.
The 30-year-old vlogger who fell to his death at the waterfall in British Columbia was the co-creator of adventure-based YouTube show High On Life, which had over 500,000 subscribers.
In December 2017, Chinese climber Wu Yongning died after falling from a 62 storey building in Changsa City.
In 2015, “rooftopper” Conner Cummings died after a drop from the Four Seasons hotel in New York.
There have been a number of deaths linked to the practice of “rooftopping”, which involves gaining access to tall buildings, to reach the summit and share a photograph of the scene.
