NYU Freshman Falls To Death While Naked, High On Shrooms

Rob Fox12 years ago

Terrible and outrageous news out of New York University today, via the New York Post:

A naked NYU freshman high on hallucinogenic mushrooms plunged to his death from the roof of his dorm in the East Village early Monday — the first day of the spring semester, cops and witnesses said.

…

“He was on mushrooms,’’ a law-enforcement source told The Post.

Drugs are bad, mmkay? Titan Lee-Hai, 18, had just returned to New York from his native Trinidad to start the spring semester at NYU and apparently he felt like kicking syllabus week up a notch. Unfortunately, that plan ended in tragedy.

Not to get preachy here, but I never quite understood the appeal of hallucinogens. I will absolutely drink five nights a week, and in college and high school I used to smoke a fair amount of weed, but drugs that drastically alter realities aren’t something that interest me. All they do is let you see fucked up shit. Even if that shit is benevolent, like the sound waves coming out of your vinyl record or a vertical pond or whatever, it’s still fucked up. If you think it’s a good idea to exponentially increase the fragility of your mind and then immerse it into some weird funhouse mirror world that could turn HORRIFYING at any moment, you’re not very bright, even if you go to NYU. The benefits of seeing colors on a wall or a turtle wearing a monocle, even though there isn’t actually a turtle there, and where would a turtle get a monocle in the first place(!?!?!), don’t even come close to outweighing the possibility that you could completely lose your shit and attack someone, maim yourself, or die like this poor bastard did. But oh man, that wall did look like a rainbow and feel like llama fur. SO COOL.

It turns out that, unfortunately for Lee-Hai, who had no history of depression or mental illness, and was said by his peers to be an otherwise intelligent and talented individual, he was in fact having a pretty bad trip. According to the story given by the last person who saw Lee-Hai, the dude was out of his mind.

Shazi Khurshid, a fellow NYU freshman, said he was the last person to see Lee-Hai alive — and it was clear he was completely out of it.

“I was in the elevator, and he just walked in and punched me in the face. He was naked when he walked in,’’ said Khurshid, 19. “So, it was pretty obvious he was not in his senses.’’

Khurshid said the teen, who lived on the second floor, urinated on the ground before riding the elevator up to the roof.

Walking around naked, punching a friend in the face for no reason, and peeing on the floor? Are we sure it was shrooms and not a fifth of Jack Daniels?

In all seriousness, this is a tragedy, and our thoughts go out to the Lee-Hai family. Remember, kids: if you’re going to get really fucked up, do it in a safe environment with people you trust.

[via The New York Post]

Image via Demetrius Loadholt/The New York Post