A "depressed" cartoonist jumped to his death from his 15th-floor Chelsea co-op on Tuesday, despite his girlfriend's frantic efforts to prevent the tragedy, authorities and eyewitnesses said. The man who jumped from 300 West 23rd St. has been identified as Jon Medwick, a 62-year-old artist who also maintained a day job at WebMD, police sources said.
The cartoonist, who took commissions from private clients and worked as a freelance copywriter, was reportedly "depressed" at the time, according to the police. According to police sources, the 45-year-old girlfriend of Medwick woke up to find him standing at the window. She tried to grab and hold him back but he slipped away.
Jumped in Depression
The horrified girlfriend tried to stop him by holding him back but before she could do anything he plunged from the ledge at the rear of the building, leading to his fatal outcome. "His apartment is at the back of the building. From what they were saying he jumped from his apartment window," one resident told the New York Post.
Law enforcement responded to a 911 call at the refurbished pre-war building at around 5:45 a.m. Authorities stated that they did not believe the fall to be suspicious.
"When I saw the coroner pulled up, the body bag, the ambulance, I knew something happened," one person in the building said.
"His apartment is at the back of the building. From what they were saying he jumped from his apartment window."
Medwick, a resident of the building for over a decade and a member of its co-op's board was described by fellow residents as a "very nice" and "sociable" man.
Medwick regularly shared photos of the Manhattan skyline taken from the apartment window, which he bought for $1.45 million in 2012.
Reason for Depression Unclear
His girlfriend had been living in the apartment since 2021, having started dating shortly before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Witnesses said that she was extremely distressed after witnessing him jump from the window to the extent that she had to be transported to the hospital.
"I did see the girlfriend. She looked distraught. She kept saying her legs were hurting ... I don't know if she was nervous. EMS took her," one source told the outlet.
Medwick's brother, who was a regular visitor to the home, was seen talking to detectives outside on Tuesday.
This tragic incident adds to a series of well-known New Yorkers resorting to jumping from high-rise apartment windows in recent months.
In February, a man plunged to his death from a high-rise in the Financial District. The tragic incident unfolded at 19 Dutch Street at Fulton Street in Manhattan's Financial District, a luxury building where rents can soar as high as $10,000 a month.
In December, a 56-year-old man jumped to his death from the fourth floor of an upscale Upper East Side townhouse in Manhattan. The unnamed man was found in front of 18 East 67th Street, near Madison Avenue, just before 7:30 a.m. on December 21.
