First off, condolences to this young man's family and friends. Any way you look at it, the death of someone so young is tragic.

It is being pointed out that he was part of a Facebook Parkour Club, I'd like to see if anyone in our community knew him.

I'd also like to point out right off the bat that "Glasses and a scarf were found 140 feet up the tower" does NOT sound like Parkour to me. I can't imagine any situation or training that would lead someone 140 feet up a tower, so I'd like to state for both myself and APK that I do not feel that this is related in any way to Parkour. If some new information comes about I'd be very interested to hear it.

LINK

gosh that sucks.
  my sincerest condolances. i am getting really tired of the people around me dieing. this is the tird death i have heard about in the last two weeks. 

Yea i was reading about this in a post by Ando. I really don't think he was doing parkour because of the height he was at. This was sad and I hope his friends and family are ok.

Not now becoming- has been, and will be. Proper education about Parkour and that it starts and ends with safety and betterment, never recklessness or carelessness is very important for the future of Parkour.

Accidents will happen, they will at some point happen to someone who is legitimately practicing parkour, and it will be sad, no more sad than when anyone else dies unexpectedly, and no less. Parkour does involve risk, and people should be aware of that every moment they are practicing, and it is only through constant reminder that we can minimize the risk.

In cases like this which don't seem to be parkour related, we need to keep reminding people what Parkour is really about, it is a training method to understand and better one's self by practicing overcoming obstacles in our environment.

It will be no different when someone who is practicing parkour is seriously injured or killed, we wil need to remind people that Parkour is meant and practiced for betterment of an individual, not for thrill seeking or showing off.
 

Please understand that APK DOES NOT advocate doing moves at lethal heights, and does not advocate doing moves which are inherently dangerous. Yes, push your limits, don't break them, and always be mindful of the consequences.

as usual M2 well said, i wish what you just said now was the kinda stuff i'd see in press articles about parkour(not to take away from those who have given parkour a good name in their respective local presses)

Update: Some Chicago traceurs have been asked to be interviewed for abc or nbc or some big news program.

So far, out of the people the Chicago guys have talked to, nobody knew who the departed was, aparently, although he had visited facebook, he was not an active part of any parkour community that we know of.

There is still no information which links this death to Parkour. Hopefully the media won't make a mess of this.

i am afriad that people will always fear things they do not understand and will blame those things for an easy answer. people are lazy as sin and will always lok for an excuse for something instead of really looking for the truth.

Hey guys, Frosti and I just got interviewed tonight by CBS news and it was aired at 10pm tonight.  It came across surprisingly well, and they explained the death and then explained what parkour was about.  Had some clips of us doing some runs and Frosti explaining the safety aspects.  They basically wanted a story explaining what parkour is about, so the safety aspect and our demonstration cleared up some misconceptions.

This is what they had to say.

“Fu was fond of Parkour, an activity described as an urban gymnastics. In Parkour, people leap fluidly over ledges, railings and walls to improve their physical and mental agility.” CBS News

Frosti - “I think it’s possible for things to be risky, but what we’re doing here is taking the risk out of it by training and learning what we’re able to do.”



Here’s some info for you guys since all you really know about is the article.

Fu was interested in Parkour and had joined the parkour facebook group.  No one from the Chicago scene has ever seen or heard about him before.  No one from the University of Illinois scene has heard of him or jammed with him.  So basically the parkour guys down there have no idea who Fu is.

The structure he was on is a huge antenna tower that just goes 140 feet straight up.  This is defiantly not parkour and just climbing 140 feet up is not something a beginner or advance traceur should attempt.

It's kind of hard to tie him to parkour since no one has ever seen or heard of him in the parkour community, but let’s just say he was doing parkour.  In this case a beginner starting off by climbing a tower is clearly misinformed, and I don't know of any sites that would promote such an idea.  Everyone i have run into has always promoted starting off small and safety first.  This connection is pretty weak right now, and the more info we are getting the less and less it seems like parkour had anything to do with it. 

This is a real tragic event, and it's sad to see someone die so young.  I wish I could have jammed with him to teach him some parkour since he seemed interested, and he prolly would have been a great addition to the Parkour scene.