TEMPE, AZ (CBS5) -
A 19-year-old man has been hospitalized with a life-threatening head injury after he fell three stories while "free running" at a Tempe apartment building.
Tempe police said John Martin fell about 3:30 a.m. from the fourth floor at 111 E. Lemon St. in Tempe while engaging in the urban acrobatics.
"It was bad," said witness Antony Devany. "There was blood everywhere, but we did the best we could. We came down, stabilized him, we checked his pulse. I kept him calm so he wouldn't move and waited 'til the EMTs came."
Devany said Martin was alive and responded when Devany asked him to squeeze his hand.
But Tempe police investigators say there's no guarantee he survives the fall.
Wikipedia defines free running as:
"… a form of urban acrobatics in which participants, known as free runners, use the city and rural landscape to perform movements through its structures. It incorporates efficient movements from parkour and adds aesthetic vaults and other acrobatics such as tricking and street stunts, creating an athletic and aesthetically pleasing way of moving. It is commonly practiced at gymnasiums and in urban areas (such as cities or towns) that are cluttered with obstacles."
A Tempe police spokeswoman said Martin was undergoing surgery Wednesday morning, but no further information was available about his condition.
Kord Henderson, a neighbor at the apartment complex said, "I woke up in the middle of the night and heard someone screaming either, 'Shaaaaawn,' or 'Jooooohhn,' and all of a sudden my roommate and I just heard ... boom."
Another witness said the MCC student was on the railing near the fourth floor stairwell when he slipped, hit his head on the rail, then fell four floors while striking each set of stairs on the way down, ultimately coming to rest on some ground floor planters.
Copyright 2011 KPHO. All rights reserved.
Courtesy weburbanist.com
