A 17-year-old boy died early Saturday after falling inside a vacant high-rise in the 1000 block of Howard Avenue in downtown New Orleans, according to police. Officers say the teen had entered the building with a group of friends around midnight and later fell while attempting to descend the stairs after the group had been drinking and climbed to a higher floor.
Emergency responders pronounced the teen dead at the scene, according to WDSU, which first reported the death. The New Orleans Police Department is investigating it as an unclassified death involving a teenager, and the case remains under investigation. Police have not released the names of the victim or the friends who were with him.
Why Police Are Calling It Unclassified
The unclassified label does not mean police suspect foul play or have ruled it an accident; it is standard practice in New Orleans for death investigations to remain unclassified until the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office completes autopsy and toxicology testing, a process Hoodline has previously reported can take anywhere from days to weeks before a formal manner of death is determined.
New Orleans police leadership is treating the case with urgency. NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick and Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Michael Harrison scheduled a joint news conference for 2:30 p.m. Saturday to address the incident, according to WWL-TV's reporting on the case. The timing signals that city hall and police brass see the fatality as more than a routine trespassing case, especially given where it happened.
A Skyscraper With a Deadly Past
Though police have not publicly named the building, the address corresponds to the vacant Plaza Tower at 1001 Howard Avenue, a 45-story, 531-foot skyscraper that has sat entirely empty since 2002 due to severe toxic mold and asbestos contamination, according to the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans. Completed in 1969, it remains the third-tallest building in the city despite decades of disuse and decay.
This is not the first fatal fall tied to the tower. In April 2023, a man died after falling inside the same building, an incident that prompted emergency crews hired by the owner to weld openings closed, WWL-TV reported at the time. It is unclear how the teenagers were able to access the interior this time despite those earlier security measures, a question officials have not yet publicly answered.
Years of Fines and Blight Complaints
Plaza Tower has been a flashpoint for city code enforcement for years. In November 2023, the City of New Orleans placed the building on its “Dirty Dozen” list of the city's worst blighted properties, citing owner Joe Jaeger with 11 code violations and roughly $400,000 in total fines, including $180,000 the city said it spent barricading nearby sidewalks against falling debris, according to city records cited by the Preservation Resource Center. Officials at the time noted it represented the second-largest code enforcement fine in city history.
The city issued a request for proposals in December 2023 to allow for the tower's demolition if conditions warranted it, even as preservationists pushed for local historic landmark status that would force stricter maintenance requirements. As of May 2024, city code enforcement records showed the building's fate was still stuck in administrative limbo between the owner and the city's Office of Economic Development, with no resolution reached before this latest death.
A Broader Pattern of Risk
The tragedy fits into a wider, troubling pattern of young people entering abandoned structures in New Orleans and beyond. In August 2022, an 18-year-old man died after falling 50 feet inside an abandoned New Orleans power plant while on an urban photography outing. And just two days earlier, Hoodline reported on a 16-year-old girl who died after falling 29 feet through a roof hole in an abandoned four-story building in Sebastian, Florida, while trespassing with a group of peers.
Under Louisiana law, entering any structure or immovable property without authorization constitutes criminal trespass, a charge that can carry a $100 fine or up to 30 days in jail for a first offense, rising to a $1,000 fine and up to six months imprisonment for repeat offenders. It remains an open question whether any criminal trespass or code enforcement actions will follow from Saturday's news conference, or what officials plan to say about how the group gained entry to a tower the city has spent years trying to secure.
