*UPDATED* Man Falls to His Death from Downtown Tower

At about 1:50 p.m., San Angelo Police received a phone call informing them of an unconscious person at 378 S. Chadbourne, SAPD Public Information Officer Tracy Gonzalez said. When police arrived, Medic 1 was on scene and advised that a 28-year-old male, who was doing some repair work to the tower, had fallen from the tower and was deceased. 

During the investigation, detectives determined that the man fell as a result of an issue with his safety equipment.

"What they found was that when he was working on the tower making some adjustments to his safety equipment there was some type of issue...and at that point he fell," Gonzalez said.

Justice of the Peace Eddie Howard was called to the scene and officially announced the time of death as approximately 1:48 p.m.

The tower the man was working on is approximately 140 feet tall, Gonzalez said. The man works for a company named MTSI out of Richardson.

"What they're doing is they're refurbishing this tower...I believe they are making adjustments to refurbish it into a cell tower," she said. "Other workers that are doing some work in the area--now that they're aware of the situation--they're providing some support for the workers that were here."

Operations have ceased on the tower this afternoon. The name of the deceased has not been released as next of kin has yet to be notified. The deceased is from Richardson. 

The tower is a fixture in the downtown area and was originally built to mount multiple large two-ton feed horns that were part of the old AT&T long distance TDM network called "1 plus." The Department of Defense also utilized the network for emergency wartime communications.

Since AT&T deactivated the old "1 plus" network years ago, these towers have been sold off to various property owners and investors.

Update 5:12 p.m.

Charlie Guyer, VP Communications for Goodman Networks, AT&T's contractor for tower construction and maintenance issued a statement. "The company has just been informed of a fatality involving one of our subcontractors Microwave Transmission Systems (MTSI).  We extend our deepest condolences to the family.  We are conducting an investigation and are fully cooperating with local, state and federal authorities," he said. Guyer said that his company routinely subcontracts with other companies to handle tower work all over the country.