Man, 22, fell to death after leaping through third floor courtroom window
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT. When police found something alarming and moved to arrest him, Tyquan Richardson hurled himself through a third floor window
A young man's life ended in tragedy when he jumped from a third-floor window to escape going back to jail.
Tyquan Richardson, 22, was facing charges of intent to supply marijuana and stood accused of possessing one ounce of the illegal substance.
However, when a gun was found outside the court office building, which police officers alleged was connected to Richardson, they came to arrest him.
When he realised what was about to happen, Richardson "charged" headfirst through a plate glass window on the third floor of the court building and fell to his death. Authorities say that he panicked at the prospect of serving a custodial sentence.
READ MORE: Manchester Piccadilly: Boy, 13, stabbed in front of horrified onlookersREAD MORE: Woman calmly smokes cigarette after stabbing elderly neighbour to death over £60A large hole was left in the window that Richardson jumped through. He died later that at about 1.30 pm after being rushed to a local hospital in October 2015.
Richardson, who was from the Atlanta area in the state of Georgia, "was somewhat concerned about what this gun charge would do, based on his record, is our understanding," said a local police spokesperson at the time.
The 22-year-old is reported to have had previous convictions, and was on bail at the time police arrested him on suspicion of concealing a loaded firearm, which meant that if it was found proven he had been possessing a weapon, he was in breach of his bail conditions.
The handgun had been found, loaded, outside the court offices amid paperwork and documents that had Richardson's name on them, Crime Monthly reports.
The police spokesperson said he admitted that the gun was his, and had been handcuffed by the police when he managed to wrestle free of their grasp and charged through the window, which was around 40 feet above the concrete pavement he landed upon, leaving him with critical injuries.
The young man had been reportedly held on remand for 15 days due to his drug charge and to have been released from this brief spell in jail only shortly before his untimely death.
Richardson is reported to have had previous convictions, including being sentenced for concealing a weapon in Michigan. He was also reported to have been arrested in 2013 for aggravated assault and battery.
A local student who witnessed the tragedy, Rehmet Khan, said: "We were just hanging out before class and all of a sudden there was a crack, like a big boom".
Fulton County Deputy Sheriff Dan Cochran told local media about the incident at the time: "Everyone's in shock."