Man falls to his death

Helen Williams was already deep into planning her June 16 wedding.

Tragically, she has been forced to make other arrangements.{{more}}

Her groom-to-be, Cecil Michael Baisden plunged to his death yesterday, from the roof of a building he was painting.

Scores of curious onlookers gathered outside the cordoned off area at Paul’s Avenue yesterday, shortly after Baisden, 49, of Largo Heights, plummeted from a building owned by businessman Leroy ‘Fly’ Edwards, shortly after 9:00 am.

The building is said to be approximately 100 feet tall.

Baisden lay face down, with his left leg twisted in an unorthodox position and his hands covered in paint.

Williams, who wailed and moaned in agony at the sight of her fiance on the pavement, still managed to utter a few words to SEARCHLIGHT.

Recalling the hours leading up to her fiance’s gruesome death, the Redemption Sharpes woman said Baisden woke up early yesterday and decided to cook before he went to work.

“…He cook before he go work and he been ah hug and kiss me up and thing…

“He tell me his boss (Edwards) told him to come into his office before he started painting…,” Williams said, as she took sips from a bottle of Mountain Top Spring water.

Williams recounted that she had just gone to pay a license for Baisden, and was in a store when her wedding planner called and related the dreadful news to her.

“She tell me he drop off the building and dead… I just run come down here to see…,” Williams moaned.

Williams also indicated that they have been in a relationship for over 20 years, but had just been living together for two.

Persons gathered at the scene were asking the question: “Why wasn’t Baisden wearing a harness?”

 Owner of the property Leroy ‘Fly’ Edwards said that he is saddened by what took place.

“It’s just a sad situation today. That’s a guy that worked around me,” Edwards told SEARCHLIGHT.

The businessman said that last Thursday, April 26, Baisden came and asked him for a job.

“He said I ain’t ha nothin’ to do and he asked me if he could do some painting,” Edwards said.

Preferring not to comment further on what happened, saying that he was not on the premises at the time of the incident, Edwards expressed sadness.

“I feel it for him because he is a good guy and I really feel it for him,” he said.

The two were well acquainted, Edwards explained, “playing football together in the old days.”

But a few months had gone, and the two had lost communication after Edwards said Baisden did some work at his house during the Christmas season.

“Last week he come and said he wanted something to do, so I told him to go ahead and do what he has to do,” Edwards said. (KW/DD)