Patrons of the Sky Pool at Houston's Market Square Tower died when the pool's plexiglass floor could not hold steadily, despite its thickness of eight inches. Investigators say that at least two patrons were horseplaying, somehow causing the floor to break—and they were among those whom fell to their deaths from 42 floors above the Market Square Tower entrance and 10 feet into Houston.
On condition of anonymity, a Houston Police Department official and one of the HPD's contacts at the Houston's Coroner's Office stated the following:
"We know that none of the swimmers survived—and you'd have to imagine that they wouldn't have survived, given that they fell from half-a-thousand feet and away from anything onto which they could've grabbed, used to break their falls, or what have. They also fell from 42 floors which make up 40 stories of the Market Square Tower—so, they fell from a height of 10.5 floors per story—no way were they going to survive that, even if the pool had been just on the first story."
As for other decedents, they had this to say:
"We are investigating to see whether anyone fell from the balcony itself—if, for example, anyone was hanging on to one of the pool walls, walking over to the pool to see what was happening, or even about to get into the pool—and either fell with the pool or fell when it was longer joined the balcony."
They also talked about whether anyone died on the ground below:
"We haven't heard, though we're looking into that—as glass and water rained down, and some glass and water rained down together as if rain and ice rained down during a winter storm, we have to see whether anyone was even just hurt as a result of anything such as an instant rush of glass and water falling on them. At a rate of 10.5 floors per story, though, the fall speed would've made likely that nobody who was hit by any glass or water would've survived—especially with so much glass and water rushing."
They additionally noted, "Some of the decedents may have died by drowning as they were falling, as if they were being rushed away in a current or down a waterfall."
The Houston Housing Authority and Houston Permitting Center, meanwhile, are looking into whether the Market Square Tower builders, maintenance personnel, and owners violated any structural-integrity or other building-code ordinances, thus causing the pool to be unsafe and unable to hold up from 10 feet out into
The Houston DA's Office will run its own investigation and will work with the police department, Housing Authority, Permitting Center, and possibly even the mayor's office and Texas gubernatorial staff.
In the meantime, the mayor's office and the governor's office have been notified, and the release of the names of the decedents is pending confirmation of their identities and notification of their deaths to their loved ones—and the impending release hinges especially on, per a rumor that is going around in Austin circles, whether one of the decedents is a loved one of the governor.
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