Connor Cummings, a 20-year-old college student from Rockaway, New Jersey, died after falling at the Four Seasons Hotel in Midtown Manhattan late Wednesday while taking photographs with an 18-year-old friend.

Police said the two, who were not hotel guests, reached a restricted rooftop area of the 52-story building with photography equipment. Accounts of the fall differ: some reports said Cummings fell nine stories down an interior shaft while descending scaffolding, while another said he stepped off a metal catwalk and fell about 25 feet onto the roof. Police said the scaffolding was wet from rain. Cummings was pronounced dead at the scene.

His friend, identified as Dimitri Olivares or Oliveras in the reports, was interviewed by detectives and released without charges. One account said he initially left in a taxi before returning to the hotel. Hotel officials said they were cooperating with the police investigation and expressed condolences to Cummings’s family.

Cummings was a graduate of Morris Knolls High School and a sophomore psychology major at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His family, friends and fraternity brothers described him as a passionate photographer and a caring friend. His aunt said she was seeking answers about what happened and described him as a photography enthusiast rather than a daredevil. The high school principal remembered him as a fine student with a bright future.