Aspiring doctor dies after fall from building

A 25-year-old Harvard Medical School student plunged to his death early yesterday morning while climbing on a fire escape leading to the roof of his Back Bay apartment building, family members and a witness said.

David Magoon, an Ohio native, started his third year at the school this week and had just begun work at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, his father, Elbert, said in an interview yesterday.

Elbert Magoon said his son apparently had tumbled while climbing between the roof and his Gloucester Street apartment to retrieve sweaters for a pair of female friends who were cold.

As authorities tried to figure out how Magoon fell, faculty, relatives, and fellow students remembered a gregarious young man with a love for fiction writing and an interest in pediatric medicine.

Orah Platt, a Harvard Medical School faculty member who knew Magoon well and attended medical school at Harvard with Magoon's parents, said Magoon immediately felt at ease working in the hospital.

``I knew him for two years," Platt said. ``He was a very bigger than life, charismatic guy. Big smile, sparkly eyes, bear hugs all around."

Platt said the school would offer counseling. She said Magoon's death would be ``a devastating blow` to the whole school.

Magoon is at least the fourth city resident to die in a plunge from a rooftop in the past two years. In 2004, a Beacon Hill woman died after falling four stories from a rooftop fire escape she was using to cross between buildings. This spring, two South End men died after tumbling from roofs.

City officials said yesterday they are concerned about people who go out on unfinished roofs to socialize.

Gary Moccia, assistant commissioner for the city's Inspectional Services Division, said officials were visiting Magoon's building at 51 Gloucester St. late yesterday to determine whether the owner should be cited.

If the inspection finds that the roof had railings and a finished floor, Moccia said, the city will cite the building owner, because the building has no permit for a rooftop deck. He said the city must inform the building's owner before disclosing the findings.

Shlomo Salomon, the owner of Magoon's building, said yesterday that the ladder to the roof is meant to serve as a fire escape.

``It's not a roof deck," he said. ``We will do whatever we need to do . . . to remind people we use that only in emergencies."

Stacie Wolf, who met Magoon at the Boylston Street bar Whiskey hours before his death and followed him back to his rooftop, said the path up felt treacherous. She said Magoon led her and a friend outside a bedroom window and onto a balcony.

At the end of a balcony, she said, they climbed an eight-rung ladder to get to the roof, which, she estimated was at least three floors above ground.

``It was a scary ladder," she said. ``He helped us up."

After 15 minutes, Wolf said, Magoon left the roof to bring them sweatshirts.

He never came back, she said, and they grew alarmed. After knocking on every door of his building, she said, they found his roommate. The three left the apartment and walked around the building, where they saw Magoon's body.

He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

``We've said `what if' a jillion times, but we . . . we don't know if he slipped or what," she said. ``It was a nice night. . . . There were chairs up there. It seemed like a usual thing."

She said Magoon had a couple of drinks over a few hours, but seemed sober.

``He was nice," she said. ``There's been a lot of crying."

Magoon's mother, Martha, speaking through tears, said her son graduated from the University of Virginia in 2003 after majoring in political and social thought.

His four-year tuition was covered by an elite merit scholarship.

He studied in Valencia, Spain, for a year after college, his parents said.

Christopher Magoon, David's younger brother, said his brother never took himself too seriously.

``You'd have to really drill him to get him to admit he was smart," he said. ``He never had an experience he didn't fall in love with."

Lauren Barr, 23, who lived across the hall from Magoon during the first year of medical school, was also grieving yesterday.

``I remember moving in and he came by to say `Hi,' " she said. ``I can't believe it, to work as hard as we all do and to get so far like we all do -- it's just so tragic."

Globe correspondents Yuxing Zheng and LeMont Calloway and John R. Ellement of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Suzanne Smalley can be reached at ssmalley@globe.com.

(Correction: Because of incorrect information provided by the family, the age of David Magoon, a Harvard Medical School student who died Friday in a fall from a Back Bay apartment, was wrong in stories in the City & Region section on Saturday and yesterday. He was 24.)