text: NEW YORK — A Rockaway man fell to his death Wednesday while climbing scaffolding at the 52-story Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan. 
   
   Police believe Connor Cummings, 20, and an 18-year-old friend were trying to take pictures from the hotel scaffolding at about 11:15 p.m. when Cummings fell. The scaffolding was wet due to the rain, New York Police Department Sgt. Daniel Boody said. 
   
   Cummings dropped nine stories in the pouring rain, landing on one of the hotel's lower rooftops, Boody said. Cummings was pronounced dead at the scene. 
   
   The 18-year-old friend was identified as Dimitri Olivares by the Daily News. No age or hometown was given. 
   
   The two young men climbed scaffolding in an interior shaft of the hotel on on 57th Street, according to the News report. As Cummings was about to step through a hatch to the roof, he slipped and fell onto a 43rd-floor landing, the report said. 
   
   Cummings was a graduate of Morris Knolls High School attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst according to his Facebook page. 
   
   "Connor was a fine student with a bright future," Morris Knolls Principal Ryan MacNaughton said in a statement. "Connor and his family were strong supporters of Morris Knolls and our thoughts and prayers are with them." 
   
   No charges have not been filed against the 18-year-old friend who was with Cummings when he fell, officials have said. 
   
   Hotel officials said they were working with police to help in the investigation. 
   
   "The safety and security of our guests, patrons and employees is a top priority for us. As this incident is currently under investigation, all inquiries are best directed to local police," hotel spokeswoman Paula Dirks said in a statement. "Our thoughts are with the family of the deceased and we extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to them." 
   
   Myles Ma may be reached at mma@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MylesMaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook. ||||| Police say a New Jersey man who was trying to descend the facade of the Four Seasons Hotel in Midtown after snapping photos of the city skyline with a friend plunged to his death late Wednesday.Officials believe 20-year-old Connor Cummings, of Rockaway, and his friend were just trying to take pictures atop the 52-story building, and the victim's family described him as a photography buff.He and his 18-year-old friend were apparently climbing down scaffolding they had used to access the roof when he fell nine stories down the interior shaft.Police say he landed on a catwalk several levels below and died at the scene.His friend climbed down to get help, and now that friend is being interviewed by detectives. Police at the scene reportedly recovered the photography equipment he was using.The young man's aunt, however, feels like the whole incident doesn't add up. She said he was a photography buff, but no daredevil."We're trying to get answers," Kate Gentile said. "They say that he went up the elevator, and then went up a stairway, and then went out on a balcony, but the cops aren't saying exactly what happened. And I know the medical examiner was up there. I mean, he's a young kid, he's a good kid. They weren't drinking or anything, they were taking a picture."Cummings was attending college in Massachusetts.Police say that Cummings and his friend were not guests at the hotel. ||||| 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.
target: – Connor Cummins' family describes him to WABC-TV as a photography devotee—and that enthusiasm may have cost him his life. The New Jersey man, said to be either 20 or 24 years old, and an 18-year-old pal ascended the scaffolding outside NYC's Four Seasons hotel Wednesday night in search of the perfect panoramic picture—but Cummins may have slipped on railings made slippery by the rain and fell nine stories to his death, cops tell NJ.com. An NYPD spokesman tells the New York Daily News that the initial investigation suggests the men weren't guests of the hotel. Cummins, who originally hails from Rockaway and whose Facebook page indicates he's now a student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, per ABC, landed on one of the hotel's lower-level rooftops around 11:15pm and was pronounced dead at the scene, reports the New York Post. His friend wasn't injured and was questioned by authorities to fill in the blanks; he was released Thursday morning without being charged. "He was a loving boy, that's all I can say," one of Cummins' relatives tells the Post. "I don't know what happened." (There's more suspicion surrounding a Muslim teen's fatal fall off a Seattle building.)