Liam Payne was behaving erratically and needed to be escorted back to his hotel room before he tragically fell to his death, prompting hotel staff to make a frantic call to the police. The former One Direction star, 31, fell from the third floor of the Casa Sur Palmero hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, yesterday.
It has been revealed that a hotel employee immediately called the police in Buenos Aires to report "an aggressive man who might have been under the effects of drugs and alcohol." Moments later, staff heard a loud noise in the hotel's courtyard, and the One Direction star's lifeless body was found shortly after 5 p.m.
Erratic Behavior Moments Before Death
Local media reports indicate that Liam "had been behaving erratically in the hotel lobby and smashed his laptop" before he "had to be taken back to his room."
According to audio obtained from the Buenos Aires security ministry, police received a call from a hotel employee urgently asking for help with an intoxicated guest. "When he is conscious, he is destroying the entire room and we need you to send someone," the worker said.
Emergency medical services director Alberto Crescenti said that Liam sustained "severe injuries after falling from the third floor into an internal courtyard."
"We verified his identity using the passport he had," he said. Crescenti told the Argentine newspaper Clarin that "the team saw that he apparently had a fracture at the base of the skull."
His body was taken to a local morgue for a post-mortem examination.
Unverified images have since surfaced online, allegedly showing Liam's hotel room in disarray, with one photo showing a broken television screen.
On Wednesday night, emotional fans embraced one another as they gathered and lit candles outside the hotel where Liam's body was discovered. One woman was seen sitting on the pavement with her head resting between her knees.
Horror Final Moments
Liam had traveled to the Latin American country earlier this month to attend a concert by his former bandmate Niall Horan. Emergency medical services director Crescenti said that Liam had fallen around 40 meters and sustained "serious injuries that were incompatible with life."
Crescenti said: "The alarm was raised at 5.04pm local time saying a person was lying in an internal patio at Casa Sur. At 5.11pm an ambulance arrived and the man was certified dead.
"Afterwards we found out he had been a famous singer. Unfortunately the injuries he had suffered as a result of the fall proved to be fatal. There was no possibility of resuscitating him."
Liam's last Snapchat post featured him happily posing with his bikini-wearing girlfriend as they smiled into a mirror. The image was a throwback, originally shared by Kate to celebrate his 30th birthday last year.
Further posts from Liam's final days showed him having a late breakfast in his hotel room, where he mentioned that they had been "waking up at 1pm every day" and had chosen Forrest Gump as their Halloween costume.
Liam's death comes just days after his ex-fiancée Maya Henry started legal action against him.
The 23-year-old Texan model had asked lawyers to send a cease and desist letter to the One Direction star, claiming that he had been persistently reaching out to her.
She also alleged that Liam had been obsessively contacting her friends and family, including her mother, Azteca Henry.
Liam shot to stardom alongside bandmates Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, and Harry Styles in 2010 after their appearance on "The X Factor."
In 2015, Malik left One Direction to pursue a solo career during their world tour, though at the time, the band stated they were not breaking up. "Ok so Lots of rumours going round," wrote Horan. "We are not splitting up, but we will be taking a well earned break at some point next year."
Liam also echoed this bandmate's reaction, telling fans, "So glad everything has been cleared up today and ur support with it is amazing not that we could ever expect anything less your amazing." He also promised "so much more to come."
However, One Direction went on an indefinite hiatus in 2016, allowing the remaining members to also launch their solo music careers.
