LONG BRANCH—The Long Branch Police Department has identified the man who jumped off a Long Branch radio tower to his death last week and ruled the death a suicide.
According to Jason Roebuck, director of Public Safety, Pedro Macias, 60, of Elizabeth, died after jumping from a 400-foot radio tower at Memorial Parkway and Broadway on April 21.
Roebuck said Macias worked for National Microwave Contractors, a radio tower service company and serviced the tower a week prior to the incident.
Kevin Hayes Sr., city fire marshal, said the Long Branch Fire Department was called to the scene at approximately 6:40 p.m. on April 21 in response to a report of a man on the 400-foot tower.
“The fire department was called because there was someone on the tower, who jumped off the tower,” he said. “He landed through the roof of the building to the west of the tower at 154 Broadway and became embedded in the second-floor of the structure inside the building.”
Hayes said the building the man landed on has been vacant for a number of years and could not be entered by emergency responders because its condition was unsafe.
He said the body was not extricated from the building until after 9 p.m.