Troubled dancer ‘one wrong step’ away from death at Mandaluyong condo

Tension gripped a busy area in Mandaluyong City on Thursday after a man reportedly tried to jump from the 18th floor of a condominium building.

Police said that when they finally got hold of Richie Zamora, 29, he first claimed that he just wanted “to get some air” but later admitted he was “emotionally stressed.”

Senior Supt. Florendo Quibuyen said Zamora, a bar dancer and a part-time driver, suddenly went over the balcony railing of his 18th floor unit at Soho Central condominium near the corner of Edsa and Shaw Boulevard around 8 a.m. Zamora shared the unit with a male live-in partner, who was not around at the time, the city police chief added.

For over an hour, Zamora held on to the railing and was “one wrong step” away from certain death, said another officer.

Quibuyen said members of the fire department and the building’s security chief tried to enter Zamora’s unit but the door was “chain-locked.” They also considered using a harness to reach him from a 19th-floor balcony, but a unit owner on that floor refused to let them in unless they sign a “waiver.”

Zamora later returned inside his unit and was placed under arrest for alarm and scandal.

Interviewed while in detention, he said he had been having family and money problems lately, and that he had just learned that morning that his six-month-old daughter with a former live-in partner in Cavite province was sick.  Kristine Felisse Mangunay