Connor Cummings, a 20-year-old college student from Rockaway, New Jersey, died Wednesday night after falling while taking photographs with a friend at the Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan, police said.

Cummings and his 18-year-old friend had reached a restricted rooftop area of the 52-story hotel to photograph the city skyline. Neither was a hotel guest. Police said Cummings fell from scaffolding or a catwalk and was pronounced dead at the scene. Rain had made the scaffolding wet, according to one police account. Reports differed on the height and circumstances of the fall: two said he dropped nine stories, while another cited police sources who said he fell approximately 25 feet after stepping backward while taking photographs.

Cummings’s friend was questioned and released without charges. One report said the friend initially left the hotel in a taxi but returned and notified security. His family described him as traumatized.

Cummings was a sophomore psychology major at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he studied photography and held a leadership role in the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity. A graduate of Morris Knolls High School, he was remembered by his principal as a fine student with a bright future. Fraternity members and friends recalled his passion for photography, his kindness and his willingness to help others.

His aunt, Kate Gentile, said the family was seeking answers about what happened. She described him as a photography enthusiast but not a daredevil, and said the two young men had been taking pictures. Hotel officials said they were cooperating with police and extended condolences to Cummings’s family.