Asher Vongtau, 19, was trapped in a narrow shaft between two buildings for 36 hours. Credit: Facebook
The NYU student who had to be rescued Sunday after being trapped in a small space between two buildings for 36 hours had been drinking in the early morning hours before he fell, sources said on Monday.
Asher Vontgau, 19, was drinking at a party in a friend’s room on the 10th floor of the dorm building at 80 Lafayette St., police sources told The New York Post. He stepped outside early Saturday morning and entered a small interior courtyard between the two buildings.
He then climbed up the fire escape of the adjacent building. When he reached the second or third floor landing, he slipped and fell into the 2-foot-wide shaft where he would be wedged for the next day and half.
Vongtau did not fall from the roof of the building as was previously reported.
The teen’s friends noticed he wasn’t around when someone pulled a fire alarm inside the building about 7 a.m.
His friends alerted campus security, then called the NYPD after no one heard from him all Saturday.
The teen’s friends said they don’t feel that campus security addressed the situation with urgency, but school officials maintained that they immediately followed protocol and began a search for the missing student.
Vongtau’s cell phone was found on the fire escape; a security officer then heard him moaning from the spot where he was wedged.
Firefighters spent an hour and half breaching a wall and pulling the student to safety Sunday evening.
He suffered a fractured skull, pelvis and arm, the teen’s mother told The New York Daily News.
