Police are calling it a tragic accident. They say people were drinking and partying on the roof of a four-story building on Fell St. when the victim took a fatal fall.
The race had officially ended but at 3:30 in the afternoon, but the party was still going on. That's when Sue Keats noticed a group of people on the roof of a neighboring building. "I'm thinking this isn't a safe thing. Someone's going to fall. And within seconds of saying that, really, I saw him fall. I saw the whole thing, and I screamed, and it was horrible," she recalled.
David Hamzeh, 28, landed on the pavement below. He was critically injured and later died at the hospital.
Henry Hutchinson lives in the building next door. "What I noticed was there were 17 police, two fire engines, the ambulance, and his friends... had been seated. They were distraught," he said.
Hutchinson says every year, the block has a Bay to Breakers party and he did not think the one on the roof was out of hand. "My understanding, there was only 6 to 8 people. So how rowdy can that be?" he said.
Hamzeh worked at an online marketing company in San Francisco called "Demand Force." His colleagues did not comment on the incident Monday.
Police say rooftop parties are not illegal, although they do discourage them because they worry about incidents just like this.
