Model plunges to her death after falling through hotel window while 'play wrestling' with female friend



A 30-year-old model died at a birthday party in her honour and another woman was seriously injured after falling from a 10th-storey hotel window.



Lashawna Threatt and the second woman were 'play wrestling' in a room in an Atlanta, Georgia, hotel at 3.15am on Saturday, witnesses told police.



The women crashed into a window and fell five storeys onto a slanted glass ceiling above a sun room at the W Midtown Hotel , investigators said.

Fatal fall: Model Lashawna Threatt during a photoshoot in 2009. She fell to her death from a window at Atlanta's W Hotel on Saturday as she celebrated her 30th birthday

Play fighting: Police say Threatt's friend, who they have not named, also fell from the window but survived the fall, sustaining multiple injuries

'They were play wrestling,' Lt Paul Guerrucci, commander of the Atlanta Police Department's homicide unit, said.



'The next thing you know, they went toward the window and through the window and out they went.'

Rescuers found Threatt dead on the sunroom roof. She left behind a 15-year-old daughter.

The second woman, whom police would not identify, tumbled off that same roof and fell onto an outdoor patio outside the hotel.

Tragic: Lashawna Threatt (pictured) died after falling from a window with her best friend Ciara Williams at Atlanta's W Hotel. Miss Williams is in a critical condition

She was taken to Grady Hospital with multiple broken bones and other injuries and listed in critical condition.

Friends say Threatt was the best friend of the injured woman.

Lt Guerrucci said: 'According to the witnesses, there was no arguing during the hours leading up to this, either, so it's really a tragic accident.'

None of the handful of people in the hotel room have been charged with any crimes.



Guerrucci would not comment on whether alcohol could have played a role in the accident.



Authorities were waiting on blood tests taken from the victim.

Death plunge:The two women fell five storeys onto a slanted glass ceiling above a sunroom at the W Hotel, according to investigators

Threatt worked as a model who did liquor promotions and appeared in print ads.



She started celebrating her birthday on Friday by eating with friends at a restaurant - then went to the hotel room for an after party, a friend said.



'My friends who were there said it was so random. They literally just fell out the window. They are two small girls and I am trying to figure out how the hell two small girls could break a window like that' Passionate Chonvill, friend

'She was extremely charismatic - she could talk to anyone,' said Jomarys Castillo, 24, who attended the dinner but left before the hotel party .

Hotel manager Michael O'Donohue referred all questions about the death back to police, citing the ongoing investigation.



The hotel remained open on Saturday.

He said in a statement: 'The incident at the W Atlanta early Saturday is very tragic.

'Our thoughts and prayers are with the woman who was injured and the family and friends of the woman who died in the fall.'

Passionate Chonvill, who is friends with both women, said both women had just got to the hotel and were 'having a good time'.



'My friends who were there said it was so random,' she told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. ' They literally just fell out the window.