Liam Payne’s untimely death at the age of 31 on Oct. 16 left not just his family and fans heartbroken, but also those who witnessed the final moments of his life. A fellow guest at CasaSur Palermo hotel, where the singer died, has admitted that he’s still haunted by the tragic incident.
Eyewitness Bret Watson had been at the hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina for his wedding when the tragedy happened. He detailed the traumatic moment he watched the former One Direction singer plummet to his death at the hotel’s inner courtyard during an interview for TMZ Presents: Liam Payne: Who’s to Blame?, which aired Monday, Dec. 16, on Fox, and the following day on Hulu.
In the interview, Watson recalled he was in a first-floor room with his wedding planner and “happened to be looking out of the window” when they both “saw Liam fall.” The groom eerily remembered the “Teardrops” singer landing on the ground face up and that he and his wedding planner could only look at each other in disbelief at what they saw.
Watson shared that he had also witnessed Payne’s erratic behavior throughout the day and could tell that he was becoming more intoxicated as the hours passed by. He also witnessed the singer’s final interaction with hotel staff, so he “could tell right away that it was Liam and he was motionless” after he and his wedding planner rushed to the balcony and saw his body on the ground.
CCTV footage from the hotel captured minutes before his death showed Payne and three men gathered outside his room on the third floor. The same men were later seen carrying the unconscious singer by his arms through the first-floor lobby and reportedly back to his room, where he later fell from the balcony.
While this isn’t the first time that Watson recalled seeing the singer’s tragic fall (see video above), it’s still apparent from the interview that he is still having a hard time trying to process what he saw. When quizzed if Payne died on impact, he replied, seemingly on the verge of tears, that while he doesn’t have a medical background, he could see that the singer “passed away immediately on impact.”
When prodded that it must have been “gut-wrenching” to have seen what he saw, Watson admitted that “just seeing anyone fall like that is heartbreaking.” However, he confessed that the sound of Payne’s body hitting the ground is more haunting than the fall itself.
“Hearing the impact on the ground was more haunting than seeing him fall and seeing the immediate aftermath — it’s something that is burned into my brain and something I’m never going to forget. I’m still working through, just trying to process and understand everything that we saw.”
The “Strip That Down” hitmaker died on the spot after suffering 25 injuries, including head trauma and severe internal bleeding. Local officials have since ruled that he was unconscious when he fell and toxicology reports showed illegal drugs in his system, including cocaine, benzodiazepine, crack and “pink cocaine,” which were allegedly supplied to him by a hotel employee.
Payne has since been laid to rest in November at a church in Amersham, England. Aside from friends, family, and his ex-girlfriend Kate Cassidy, his One Direction bandmates — Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, and Niall Horan — were also in attendance.
Published: Dec 17, 2024 09:55 am