Four men accused of organizing a parachute jump from the top of the 104-story One World Trade Center in New York City in September 2013 were arrested after turning themselves in at a city police station on Monday, police said.
Security cameras around the World Trade Center site had recorded at least two figures in black suits and black helmets landing and walking off into the night with their parachutes at about 3 am local time on September 30, 2013
Nearly six months later, Marko Markovich, 27; Andrew Rossig, 33; Kyle Hartwell, 29; and James Brady, 32, arrived with their defense lawyers at a police station on Monday and were arrested on charges of burglary and reckless endangerment, police said.
They are also charged with breaking a local law that bans jumping from structures, including the tallest skyscraper in the United States, which is still under construction on the site of the destroyed Twin Towers.
"They're professional thrill-seekers," Andrew Mancilla, a lawyer representing Brady, said in a telephone interview, adding that all four men would plead not guilty.
Brady was employed as a construction worker at the World Trade Center site, police said. The four men gained access to the site by sneaking through a hole in the construction fence, Mancilla said.
Hartwell remained on the ground while the other three men jumped, Timothy Parlatore, a defense lawyer for the men, said.
"Being a thrill-seeker does not give immunity from the law," William Bratton, the police commissioner, said in a statement.
Markovich, Hartwell and Brady are all from Long Island in New York, while Rossig is from Slate Hill, New York.
Despite multimillion dollar security measures at the site, a 16-year-old boy was arrested earlier this month for sneaking to the top of One World Trade Center with his camera. He also got onto the site by crawling through a hole, although it was unclear on Monday if it was the same one.
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