After five in the afternoon this Wednesday, in the cosmopolitan Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo, the sirens of police and fire cars anticipated the news that would spread in a few minutes through telephones, media and social networks: the British singer Liam Payne died after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires. Dozens of curious people and fans of the band One Direction, to which Payne belonged, ran there. Some arrived shocked. Others approached with the hope that it was not true, but this faded when they saw the police cordon that prevented them from approaching, the televisions that broadcast live and the arrival of a group of forensic experts dressed in white coats to recognize the scene.
Among those present, mostly young women, there were more questions than tears. Everyone knew the brief official information: Payne died instantly from a head injury. He fell from the third floor to an internal patio of the CasaSur hotel, at number 6032 Costa Rica Street. The hotel manager explained that they heard “a loud noise” and when they went to the scene they found that Payne was dead. Minutes earlier, the police had received a 911 call reporting “about an aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”
From there, the rumors among the more than 200 people who occupied the street multiplied and diversified. The common link in all the stories was that Payne was under the influence of some substance, a hypothesis that will be confirmed or discarded when the results of the autopsy are known. However, some maintained that he had entered alone and had violently resisted going up to his room, while others claimed that he arrived accompanied by two women and that he may have fought with them over money. Meanwhile, on social networks, videos began to circulate showing the singer’s supposed room destroyed in a fit of rage.
A decade ago, One Direction was the band of adolescence for millions of people around the world, also in Argentina, where they still remember the recital they gave in the country on May 3, 2014. “I camped out for two nights to see them” , recalled Martina di Lalla, a 24-year-old fan who this Wednesday approached the doors of CasaSur, at number 6032 Costa Rica Street. “One Direction was part of our adolescence,” he commented, “It’s like someone you know dying.”
Since the group’s dissolution in 2015, the solo path of its five members has been uneven and Payne’s has been among the least fortunate. “I listened to One Direction a lot and although I am a fan of Louis (Tomlinson) and not Liam, to think that he died is tragic,” lamented Victoria, 18. “The way he died seems terrible to me,” he insisted. This fan found out through a call from her mother when she was in a cafe with her friends and the three of them decided to walk the blocks that separated them from the modern four-star hotel where the tragedy occurred.
It was eight in the afternoon and the fans were on tiptoe behind the police cordon, with their cell phones in their hands, ready to record if the hotel doors opened to remove the body, which at that time was still inside. Behind them, the family that owns the Chinese supermarket across the street had climbed onto some beer crates to have a privileged view of that moment.
Accused of violent
The accusations of gender violence against him made by his ex-partner Maya Henry made a dent in his image and flew over in the hours after his death in Buenos Aires. Just two days ago, Henry said in an interview that Payne demanded that she undergo an abortion without proper medical help to prevent the news from getting out. According to her testimony, after terminating the pregnancy, the singer abandoned her.
One Direction fans knew that Payne was in Argentina because on October 2 he appeared by surprise at the recital that his former partner Niall Horan gave at the Movistar Arena stadium in Buenos Aires. The public recognized him and recorded videos in which a fan was heard shouting “I love you” and Payne was seen dancing frantically to some of the One Direction classics performed by Horan. Many followers thought he had already left town. No one imagined that two weeks later he would be dead.
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