Suicide at San Francisco Marriott By Former Employee of DHS Terrorist Behavioral Study Group, Following Brutal Assault

The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that a New Yorker jumped to his death Sunday at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis and that the assault of a female hotel worker found in a luxury suite at the hotel hours after the suicide are being investigated as related incidents, police said Tuesday.

Alexander Damhuis, 26, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was identified as the hotel guest who committed suicide around 10:30 a.m. Sunday, according to the city medical examiner’s office.

The man jumped from a high-rise roof of the hotel at 780 Mission St. and landed on a fifth-floor deck, police said. He died at the scene.

Hours later, at about 5 p.m., police were notified that a female hotel employee was missing, said Officer Grace Gatpandan, a police spokeswoman.

Officers searched the building and found the worker in a penthouse suite of the hotel suffering from life-threatening injuries, Gatpandan said. She was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where she was listed in critical condition.

The woman is employed at the hotel as a housekeeper, KTVU reports.

According to Damhuis' linked in profile he previously worked for The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism.

According to a National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism page the government organization  was established in 2005 as a U.S. Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence, tasked with utilizing state-of-the-art theories, methods, and data from the social and behavioral sciences to improve the understanding of the origins, dynamics, and social and psychological impacts of terrorism.

START was funded by an initial $12 million grant from DHS to complete projects in the research areas of terrorist group formation and recruitment, terrorist group persistence and dynamics, and societal responses to terrorist threats and attacks. Based at the University of Maryland, START supports research efforts of leading social scientists at more than 50 academic and research institutions, each of whom is conducting original investigations into fundamental questions about terrorism. START's Mission: To advance science-based knowledge about the human causes and consequences of terrorism as a leading resource for homeland security policymakers and practitioners.

 -RW