A young woman who had just started her career at a New York City investment firm plunged to her death during a rooftop party in the East Village, police said Sunday.
Cameron Perrelli, 24, was at a gathering on the roof of a building on Avenue A near E. 12th St. early Saturday morning at around 3 a.m. when she lost her footing near the ledge and fell off, cops said.
Medics took her to Bellevue Hospital, but she couldn’t be saved.
Police believe Perrelli was attending a birthday party at 202 Avenue A, and tried to cross over to the roof of an adjacent building, 200 Avenue A, when she fell down an airway between the two.
Perrelli’s death left her devastated family searching for answers.
“It’s not like her to be a risk taker. She’s not one to take those risks. I don’t get it,” said her father, Louis Perrelli. He said he was particularly disturbed by reports of frequent rooftop parties in the area.
“We don’t really know a lot,” said her uncle, Michael Perrelli. “We got three stories — that she was jumping from one building to the next, and we heard that she was walking on an air-condition vent, and then somebody just said she slipped.
“Don’t they have a fence on top of the building? They allow parties?”
Michael Perrelli said his niece was normally cautious, “not the daredevil type,” and didn’t drink to excess.
“She was living a good life. She wasn’t a big partier,” he said. “It’s just sad, because that girl just had her whole life starting, you know? She was a good kid. She was a really good kid.”
According to her LinkedIn.com page, she studied business management at the University of Florida and started working in New York City in 2019, when she joined the Third Bridge Group. She became a client associate in January, according to her profile.
“Oh my God, Cameron was an angel,” her father said. “She’s very mature, quiet, lovely. She was perfect. … She was always the designated driver, the good person, the peacemaker. She was an angel — that good.”
His daughter went to the gym regularly, followed hockey since childhood, loved her dog and was devoted to her friends, who would come up to New York to visit her on weekends, he said.
She graduated from Trumbull High School in Connecticut, her dad recounted, but was always drawn to New York after visiting the city with him during business trips. They went to Rangers and Yankees games together.
“Her heart definitely belonged to New York, that’s for sure,” he said.
The building where she fell, 202 Avenue A, was recently gutted and rebuilt into The Topanga, a six-story mixed-use apartment building with a penthouse and a private terrace.
Perrelli’s death also sparked cries from neighbors and elected officials to rein in rooftop parties.
Councilwoman Carlina Rivera called the party “dangerously overcrowded,” and said it was the latest in a string of noisy, dangerous rooftop get-togethers in the East Village where revelers often jump from building to building.
“This tragedy shows just how dangerous overcrowded or mismanaged rooftop parties have become, and how often they have little to no safety protections or monitoring,” Rivera said in a statement Sunday.
She said she’s working on bills that would require tenants to sign a document saying they understand the city’s noise codes, and to give city agencies better access to emergency contacts for buildings, while requiring tighter oversight of rooftops.
“If you make the decision to buy a building, you are responsible for the lives of its residents. And these landlords are not living up to that responsibility,” she said.
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer added, “The tragic death of a woman who fell from a roof during a party in the East Village on Saturday is a painful reminder that City Hall and property managers are failing to step up when it comes to rooftop parties.”
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