A Facebook employee died at the company’s Menlo Park, California headquarters Thursday from an apparent suicide. The man jumped from the fourth floor of the building at the company’s campus. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
The Menlo Park Police Department said they received a call at about 11:30 a.m., reporting that someone jumped from the building on Jefferson Drive.
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“Menlo Park Police Officers and Menlo Park Fire Protection District personnel responded, and when they arrived, found the victim unresponsive,” police said in a statement. “Firefighters and paramedics administered medical aid but were unable to revive the victim. The victim was pronounced deceased at the scene.”
The preliminary investigation ruled out foul play. The victim’s identity was not released until his family is notified.
“We were saddened to learn that one of our employees passed away at our Menlo Park headquarters earlier today,” a Facebook spokeswoman said in a statement to CNBC. “We’re cooperating with police in their investigation and providing support to employees. While the family is being notified, we have no information to share. We hope to provide an update when we learn additional information from law enforcement.”
This is the second death of a Facebook employee in less than a month. On Aug. 28, Kiranjot Deol, 28, was killed in a bicycling accident in Fremont, California. Deol was a Facebook software engineer killed when he collided with a truck driven by a 25-year-old man. The driver stopped at the scene of the accident and cooperated with police.
“We were incredibly saddened to hear of Kiranjot’s passing,” Facebook spokesman Anthony Harris said in a statement to Bay City News Service. “We are offering our support to his family at this difficult time.”
The Facebook campus in Menlo Park covers 430,000 square feet, reports Mashable. The company moved to the expansive campus in 2015. The office complex was designed by Frank Gehry and features a 9-acre rooftop park.
“Our goal was to create the perfect engineering space for our teams to work together. We wanted our space to create the same sense of community and connection among our teams that we try to enable with our services across the world,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a statement in 2015. “To do this, we designed the largest open floor plan in the world — a single room that fits thousands of people. There are lots of small spaces where people can work together, and it’s easy for people to move around and collaborate with anyone here. On the roof is a 9-acre park with walking trails and many outdoor spaces to sit and work.”
If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Photo credit: JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images
