New York robbery suspect broadcasts on Facebook Live then falls to his death

A New York robbery suspect died broadcasting his final moments after falling from the 11<sup>th floor of an apartment building while trying to flee police using bedsheets as a rope, it has been reported.

Jamel Chandler, 21, fell from an apartment in the Fort Greene area of Brooklyn on Tuesday (18 April) after being suspected of robbing a cab driver in the city.

Officers were knocking on the door of an apartment on Monument Walk in the Ingersoll Houses when Chandler used a rope, fashioned out of leopard print bed sheets, to rappel down to the seventh floor.

But the makeshift rope could not hold his weight for long and he plunged to the ground. Police say that Chandler was then taken to Brooklyn Hospital, where he died, reports the New York Daily News.

In the seconds before he fell, Chandler, who went by the Facebook username Mell DeCaprio, told the world: "Cops is at my door. They looking for me right now.

"They about to arrest me ... I'm about to get arrested, they're about to lock me up. Tune in, tune in, tune in."

Then, in a six-minute video, Chandler announced that he wanted to jump out of the window.

"I'm about to go to jail ... and I ain't been home a whole month," he said. "I'm about to jump out the window. I'm on the 11th floor. I'm about to jump, bro, jump. If you want to jump, let me know. They right there bro."

Police said that no officers were present in the apartment before the father-of-one fell.

It was reported that police remained outside the property as they had found out about the live feed while a sergeant and two others ran outside to see Chandler attempt to climb down - only for him to plummet to the ground.

One resident in the block where he fell, Andre Davis, said he saw Chandler drop: "He flew right past my window, then boom, his body was right there," he said.

Chandler, who had reportedly just served a prison sentence, stopped the video before he fell.

His mother, Joyce Ford, spoke to the Daily News after his death to say: "I can't believe my child is in that morgue. It's just not fair".