A hotel guest had witnessed Liam Payne’s fatal fall and remains haunted by the One Direction singer’s passing via PEOPLE.
Bret Watson was at the CasaSur Palermo in Buenos Aires for his wedding in mid-October. On October 16th, he was on the hotel’s first floor with his wedding planner when he witnessed Payne fall to his death at the age of 31. Payne fell from a third-floor balcony at the hotel and passed away from multiple injuries and “internal and external” hemorrhages, as per a preliminary autopsy report.
Watson revealed in TMZ Presents: Liam Payne: Who’s to Blame? that before watching Payne fall to his death, he and his wedding guests saw the singer become more intoxicated and behave more erratically as the day continued. Watson stated that he saw the hotel staff carry Payne by his arms and legs from the lobby to his hotel room. Payne was then left alone in the room and fell from the balcony shortly after.
Watson also stated that after watching Payne fall, he and the wedding planner ran to the balcony and immediately identified the late musician because he fell on his back and face up. “We could tell right away that it was Liam, and he was motionless,” Watson said, per TMZ.
“Time stopped, or really slowed down. Immediately afterwards the wedding planner and myself looked at each other to just see ‘Oh my God, this is real. This actually happened.’ ”
Watson said the sound of Payne’s body hitting the ground was more traumatic than seeing him fall. “One, seeing anyone fall like that is heartbreaking, but being able to see it happen and then hear the impact on the ground was more haunting than seeing him fall,” he added.
“Then seeing the immediate aftermath is something that is burned into my brain,” he said. “Something I am never going to forget.”
