NJ student at Temple U falls 8 floors, lands on pedestrian, dies

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A freshman Temple University student plunged to her death while taking photographs from an eighth-floor window ledge in downtown Philadelphia.

University President Neil Theobald identified the student Friday as 18-year-old Rebecca Kim.

Kim was visiting friends at an Art Institute of Philadelphia dormitory Thursday evening, and she slipped and fell as she tried to get back inside from the ledge, police said.

She landed on a pedestrian on the sidewalk outside an H&M clothing store on Chestnut Street near tony Rittenhouse Square park.

Kim was pronounced dead at a hospital a short time later. The 44-year-old pedestrian was hospitalized with broken vertebrae and missing teeth.

Kim graduated last June from Wissahickon High School in Ambler. She started at Temple in August and was studying pre-pharmacy.

In a message on its website, Theobald says Temple's thoughts and prayers are with Kim's loved ones. The university said it was offering grief counseling.

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