What Really Happened At Raven Tower?

At around 3 pm on Friday, a post on Reddit  — one about a report from the Houston Chronicle indicating that the tower portion of Raven Tower was temporarily closing — garnered the following comment: “Does this have anything to do with that guy falling off of it?”

Several commenters alleged that someone fell from the very top of Raven Tower and was severely injured. The Reddit thread eventually included an extremely grisly photo of the person who allegedly fell, one that I would honestly avoid viewing.

FPH contacted Johnny So, co-managing partner of Raven Tower, to clarify the situation and find out if the Redditors’ allegations held any water.

“First of all, it’s a complete fabrication, let’s just make that clear,” So says. “No one has ever fallen off the roof of Raven Tower. It’s a complete fabrication. In regards to the picture that was taken, I can tell you what actually happened that’s associated with that photo.”

“That picture, assuming it is even real, probably was at an event that occurred on March 11 at the Electric Six show that we had there,” continues So. “During that show, there was a gentleman — who’s name I actually have, but I’m not going to disclose it for privacy reasons — who was basically moshing/dancing to Electric Six and he tripped over the person he was with and when he tripped he fell to the floor. I think he fractured his eye socket, got a cut over his eye and also lost five to six teeth when he fell to the floor. His companion and one of our floormen escorted him outside of the pavilion, and then our foreman — who is First Aid and CPR certified — immobilized his neck and applied pressure to the cut that he had over his eye. Another foreman called an ambulance and when it got there, the guy who got injured refused treatment and said he did not want to go to the hospital, he did not want EMT treatment. The EMTs finally convinced him to get into the ambulance because he needed it and he allowed them to treat his lacerations. Then they offered to take him to the hospital. He refused and left the premises of his own power. So that’s the image that I think that you are seeing. It has nothing to do with falling off the tower, that’s just a complete fabrication.”

In addition to his account, So clarified that there are official records of the incident on March 11 due to the involvement of paramedics.

The report in the Chronicle includes a quote from Raven Tower and White Oak Music Hall developer Will Garwood about the decision to temporarily close the tower: “We are doing this on our own accord.” He clarified, adding, “We have no controversy with the city.” As far as a lack of controversy, I don’t know, but the thread of someone falling off the Tower devolved in true Reddit form, eventually filled with comments about the person being pushed and that the incident involved employees, which is completely unsubstantiated outside of the post. It’s Reddit, so are we really surprised?

by Elizabeth Rhodes