Connor Cummings, a 20-year-old college student from Rockaway, New Jersey, died Wednesday night after falling from a rooftop structure at the Four Seasons Hotel in Manhattan. Police said Cummings and an 18-year-old friend had gone to the 52-story hotel to photograph the city skyline. Neither was a guest.

The accounts differ on how the fall occurred. Two reports said Cummings fell nine stories down an interior shaft from scaffolding that was wet from rain. One said he slipped while approaching a rooftop hatch; another said he was descending after taking photographs. A third report, citing police sources, said he stepped off a rooftop catwalk while walking backward and taking pictures, falling about 25 feet. All three said he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Cummings’s friend, identified in the reports as Dimitri Olivares or Oliveras, was questioned by police and released without charges. One account said he climbed down to get help; another said he initially left the hotel before returning and alerting security. Police were investigating, and hotel officials said they were cooperating and offered condolences to Cummings’s family.

Cummings was a Morris Knolls High School graduate and a sophomore psychology major at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He had taken photography courses and held a leadership role in the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity. His family and friends described him as passionate about photography, caring and helpful. His aunt, Kate Gentile, said the family was seeking answers and described him as a photography enthusiast, not a daredevil. His former high school principal called him a fine student with a bright future.