A homeless man died after breaking into an aquatic center in Scottsdale, Ariz., and getting stuck in a pipe, investigators said Tuesday.
Scottsdale police have identified the man as 31-year-old Ryan Kelly. An officer on patrol early Monday heard faint calls for help, police said. After a search, officers determined that the calls were coming from the locked Eldorado Aquatic and Fitness Center.
Investigators determined Kelly had climbed over the center’s fence and crawled inside a cylindrical support structure for the waterslide where he became stuck.
Police spokesman Sgt. Kevin Watts told the Arizona Republic that the hollow steel tube acted like a megaphone, allowing the patrol officer to hear him from a quarter-mile away.
Fire officials arrived on the scene and were communicating with Kelly by around 2:30 a.m., the Arizona Republic reported. They were forced to dismantle the waterslide to reach him.
Kelly died by the time he was pulled from the pipe around 7 a.m. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner is expected to determine his official cause of death.
