Man dies trying to pull another from ledge at Hawaii dorm

HONOLULU (AP) – Students at the University of Hawaii’s Manoa campus were expected begin moving into dorms Tuesday, just days after a man fell to his death while trying to pull another man from a ledge at the Hale Wainani dormitory, police said.

Counseling is available for students campus-wide, and in the coming weeks, staff will be checking in on the students who were living in Hale Wainani at the time of Sunday’s incident, university spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said.

The 24-year-old man who died was trying to bring inside an apparently distraught 19-year-old who went out a window, authorities said.

Both men fell from the 14th floor and were critically injured, police said in a statement. They were taken to a hospital, where the older man was pronounced dead. The other was in critical condition Monday, police said.

Neither man was a University of Hawaii student, Meisenzahl said.

A student who lived at the dorm had people over, and the two men were among them, Meisenzahl said. Their names were not released.

The university is investigating whether any violations of the student code occurred, Meisenzahl added.

“It’s a terrible tragedy – the last thing we want to happen … whether they are students or not,” he said. “Of course, our condolences go out to their friends and family.”

The school year hasn’t started yet, so only about 20 students – those in need of transitional housing between the summer and fall semesters – were living in the two towers that make up the Hale Wainani dorm. They were scheduled to move out Sunday for cleaning ahead of the fall semester.

During the school year, the dorm houses more than 600 students. Those arriving for the upcoming semester are scheduled to move in to the dorms Tuesday and Friday.

On Monday afternoon, there were mostly maintenance workers and cleaning staff outside Hale Wainani getting ready for students to move in.

The university’s flagship campus in Honolulu’s Manoa neighborhood is generally a commuter school without much of a fraternity scene, Meisenzahl said. About 4,000 of its 18,000 students live in campus housing.