Buenos Aires’ CasaSur Palermo hotel emerged as the site for the traumatic death of Liam Payne, earlier this week. The singer was all of 31. He reportedly fell off the balcony of his hotel room on the third floor, resulting in his death. Breaking of the news has understandably left millions the world over, shocked and gutted, considering the manic popularity Liam commanded during, and somewhat after, his stint as one-fifth of the erstwhile boy band One Direction. While it is by now, well known that Liam’s final night involved alcohol and drug abuse, audio of the 911 call made moments before he fell to his death, was only recently made public by the Argentine Police. An English translation facilitated by the Associated Press, reveals the explicit concern expressed by CasaSur Palermo’s desk manager Esteban, who rightly feared for Liam’s life. The reason? Liam was very evidently under the influence of drugs and alcohol and was staying in a room with an adjoining balcony. The very balcony he fell from.
Translated excerpts from the call read: “We have a guest drunk with drugs and alcohol. When he is conscious he is breaking everything in the room. We need you to send someone please…We need to send someone with urgency because I don’t know if the guest’s life is in danger because he is in a room with balcony, and we are afraid he could do something that threatens (his) life…”.
While the internet is of course lauding Esteban for correctly assessing the devastating situation which was about to unfold, some definitely found it very eerie that he would specifically make mention of the balcony being a threat to Liam’s safety, a chillingly correct prediction in hindsight. “The mention of the balcony is very weird”, read a comment. However, conjecture between commenters reached a consensus of sorts with many pointing out keeping people under the influence of drugs and alcohol away from windows and balconies, was a first instinct for many. A comment explained, “absolutely not do you know how many drunk people or I should say people under the influence of anything fall every year from balconies so the fact that he’s irate and breaking things in the room he won’t let people in. They’re trying to say there’s urgency because there’s also a three-story balcony in there with him”. Other comments further cleared: “The mention of the balcony is a very clear sign of concern, specially when someone is under a panic and mental anxiety attack and in a high rise building with an open balcony. The man did the right thing to address that clearly” and “The mention of the balcony is a very clear sign of concern, specially when someone is under a panic and mental anxiety attack and in a high rise building with an open balcony. The man did the right thing to address that clearly”.
Coming back to the aftermath, former bandmates of the now-deceased singer, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson released a brief joint statement, expressing how absolutely devastated his death has left them. Each of the singers eventually proceeded to share individual tributes, spotlighting the endless memories they shared with their former stage comrade. While Harry’s statement referenced Liam’s “infectious” energy for life, Niall rued over the fact that he didn’t know the last time he met Liam would truly be the last.
On a separate note, the stark similarity in Harry and Niall’s tributes for the singer have received quite some flack from netizens for being “soul-less” and “copy-paste PR statements”.
Zayn’s tribute on the other hand carried personal details about the duo’s early days navigating sudden stardom and what a rock Liam was to him through it all.
Louis’ made for the longest tribute in which the singer shared that Liam’s passing meant that he has lost a brother.
RIP, Liam Payne.
