Man killed after 65-foot fall at Turner Field during Braves-Phillies game

http://www.news.com.au/sport/more-s...tas-turner-field/story-fndukor0-1226696641640


Baseball fans look over a railing at Turner Field near the scene where a man fell 20 metres from the upper deck on Monday. Source: AP


The Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office early on Tuesday identified the man as Ronald Homer of Conyers, Georgia, and said an autopsy was planned for Tuesday.

Homer, 30, fell during Monday night's game between the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies at Atlanta's Turner Field. Atlanta police spokesman John Chafee said there was no indication of foul play, and the fall appears to have been an accident.

"It appears he fell from an upper-level platform to a secured lot below," Mr Chafee said late Monday.

Police received the report of the fall just before 9pm (11am Tuesday AEST) on Monday. When officers arrived, they located a man who appeared to have fallen 20 metres. The man was transported to Atlanta Medical Centre and died of his injuries.

Mr Chafee said the fall occurred on the stadium's back side. He said witnesses described the fall as accidental, but that police were not releasing other details of what they said.

He said he did not know if wet conditions or alcohol were factors.

Heavy rains had led to a nearly two-hour delay of the game, which was scheduled to start at 7:10pm.

The victim's mother, Connie Homer, said her only son, 30-year-old Ronald Lee Homer Jr, told her in a cellphone call from the Monday night game that rain was starting to let up and he was preparing to go back in the stadium. She says he ended the call in his typical way, telling his mother he loved her.

She says her son did landscape work outside Atlanta.

A Braves spokeswoman declined to comment earlier on Monday night, referring calls to the Atlanta police.

Monday's accident wasn't the first of its kind to happen at Turner Field, and marked at least the third time a sports fan has fallen from the stands in Atlanta in about a year.

Isaac Grubb, 20, of Lenoir City, Tennessee, died after falling over a railing at the Georgia Dome during a football game between Tennessee and North Carolina State on August 31, 2012. Authorities said he landed on another man seated in the lower level, and that alcohol was a factor.

A man fell about 8 metres over a staircase railing at a Georgia Tech-Miami football game on September 22, 2012 and was not seriously injured.

In May 2008, a 25-year-old Cumming, Georgia man suffered head injuries when he fell down a stairwell at Turner Field during a game between the Braves and the New York Mets and later died. Police found that alcohol had factored into that accident, which the Braves had said was the first non-medical fatality to happen at the ballpark.

Turner Field became the home of the Braves in 1997, a year after serving as the site of events for the 1996 Summer Olympics.