The young daredevil who fell to his death at the Four Seasons wasn’t paying attention as he snapped photos while walking backward on a metal catwalk on the hotel’s roof when he stepped off the scaffolding and took a fatal plunge, police sources said.

Connor Cummings, 20, of Rockaway, NJ, slipped 25 feet, past the ladder he used to access the catwalk before landing hard on the hotel’s roof around 10:40 p.m. on Wednesday, the sources said.

The thrill-seeker and his 18-year-old buddy Dimitri Oliveras, carrying their photography equipment, had taken the hotel elevator to the top floor of the 52-story hotel and walked up two flights of stairs to the rooftop exit, police sources said.

The pair were not guests of the hotel but managed to reach the restricted rooftop anyway, sources said.

“Upon gaining access to the roof, there’s a fenced off area that includes mechanical equipment. Surrounding this equipment there are catwalks and ladders,” a police source said.

The two amateur photographers climbed another 25 feet on a ladder to get a “panoramic” shot of the city when Cummings lost his footing and fell, sources added.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

A frightened Oliveras then climbed down the ladder and upon seeing his lifeless friend, fled the roof and hopped in a taxi cab — but he only got 10 blocks before he second-guessed his decision to bail, sources said.

Oliveras of Dover, NJ, went back to the Midtown hotel where he called his mom and told hotel security what happened, sources said.

Police questioned the teen and released him without charges.

Oliveras was in shock Thursday, said family who answered the door at his home.

“The kid’s traumatized,” said a relative, before declining to comment further.

Cummings was a sophomore psychology major at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he also took photography courses and played a leadership role in the fraternity Alpha Sigma Phi.

“He was a loving boy, that’s all I can say,” a relative said.

His fraternity brothers posted a message on Facebook mourning their friend’s death and described his “fiery passion” for photography.

“His love for this hobby was illustrated through his beautiful works of art,” the fraternity wrote. “Connor was someone who would stop to help someone without any questions and was always committed in getting the job done.”

Mike Pascale, a childhood friend from New Jersey, said he felt sick when heard the news Cummings’s death. From now on, he said he would be reminded of the shutterbug whenever her took photos of his own.

“Connor, to me, was such a remarkable friend as well as has such an amazing family,” Pascale told The Post.

“[He] put others first, lived and breathed his passions and was very down to earth. It’s difficult to find someone like him in this messed up society we live in,” the friend added.

Additional reporting by Natalie Musumeci and Kevin Fasick.