By Heather Grossmann and Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Staff
MANHATTAN — A security guard tried to coax a Yale student down from the fence on the observation deck of the Empire State Building moments before he took his own life in a suicide plunge.
"You don't have to do this!" the guard yelled to Cameron Dabaghi moments before he leapt from the 86th floor during the Tuesday evening rush, the New York Post reported.
Dabaghi's friends and classmates at the Ivy League school and back home in Austin, Texas, were still grasping for answers as to why a young man with such promise chose to end his life.
The distraught 21-year-old junior apparently left a suicide note apologizing for killing himself, the Daily News reported. In the note, found in a Yale residence hall, he said he was off to New York either to jump from the Empire State Building or the George Washington Bridge.
"It's so sad. I always thought he was somebody who would change the world," Jack Newman, Dabaghi's former tennis coach, told the Post.
"Everyone is in shock," Tommy Meyerson, a former roommate of Dabaghi, told the News. "He was joking around. He never mentioned anything about being upset or going to New York. He missed class yesterday, but I didn't think anything of it."
Students held a candlelight vigil on campus Wednesday night, according to news reports.
Another student noted that Dabaghi had transferred from Trumbull — one of the 12 colleges that make up Yale University — to Berkeley College, which is unusual. Most students usually stick with the college to which they are assigned, students said.
Dabaghi hailed from a gated community in Austin and attended the Deerfield Academy boarding school in Massachusetts, the News reported.
His younger sister is currently a Yale freshman.
Suicide among students is a rising concern in New York State, where Cornell University has had at least six students take their lives during this academic year. Nine students have committed suicide at New York University since 2002, including a young man who jumped to his death in the school library this November.
On Monday, an 18-year-old man jumped in front of a subway train and died at Columbia University’s subway station at 116th and Broadway, though police said he was not a Columbia student.
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention said that there was no evidence that Dabaghi had taken his life because of academic pressures, noting that more than 90 percent of people who die from suicide have an underlying mental illness.
The Foundation said that on average 1,100 college students across the country die by suicide a year and that suicide is the second leading cause of death among students, with accidents being the first.
The organization said that the issues surrounding suicide are often more complicated than they appear, with mental issues and substance abuse often playing a role.
Yale College Dean Mary Miller sent an e-mail to the parents of undergraduates this morning telling them about Dabaghi's death and suggesting that they contact and comfort theirs sons and daughters.
If you are in a crisis and need help, please call the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
