BACOLOD City – Another man died after falling off the third floor of a mall in an apparent suicide in this city on Tuesday morning.
The name of the 43-year-old man, a resident of this city, was withheld by this paper as requested by the family.
A report from the Bacolod City Police Office stated that the man committed suicide by jumping off the steel barricade of the third floor of the mall.
According to the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, the victim was rushed to the Riverside Medical Center where he was pronounced “dead on arrival” by the attending physician.
The mall’s public and media relations manager, May Castro, said the incident happened at around 10:16 a.m. just minutes after the mall opened.
Castro said their emergency response teams immediately responded. His wife accompanied the victim to the hospital, she added.
According to Police Station 1 investigators, the wife disclosed that the man was suffering from depression, said Chief Inspector Sherlock Gabana, BCPO spokesman.
Gabana said that, according to the wife, the man already attempted to commit suicide four times. Police continued to investigate, he said.
Meanwhile Mayor Evelio Leonardia noted that several suicide incidents have previously happened at the mall.
In 2016 a German national jumped off the third floor of the same wing of the mall while in 2017 a teenager did the same, but from the second floor, he said.
Leonardia considers having the mall’s structure checked. He said the management must seriously and strictly adopt measures to prevent similar incidents. “I will talk to the management,” he said./PN
