Onlookers goaded a teenager as he threatened to jump off a building and then took photos of his body, British newspapers reported. Shaun Dykes, 17, plunged 18 metres to his death from the roof of a car park at the Westfield shopping centre in Derby, England, on Saturday after police negotiators tried in vain for three hours to talk him down. A crowd had gathered underneath, with a few onlookers shouting abuse at him and urging him to jump. Reports said one teenager yelled: "How far can you bounce?" Superintendent Andy Hough, of Derbyshire police, said it was a "disturbing and shocking reflection on society when people feel inclined to do that". "People were at the police cordon shouting for the man to jump," Superintendent Hough told the Daily Mail. An unnamed witness told the newspaper: "When he fell, lots of people were screaming and crying, but there were several groups of youths who ran from behind the cordon and looked like they were taking pictures with their mobile phones." Shaun, of Kilburn, Derbyshire, had become depressed after a recent relationship break-up, friends told Britain's Daily Telegraph. Security guard Paul Kennedy told the paper: "There were horrible scenes that afternoon, with the crowd shouting some awful things at the poor young lad. "The police did a fantastic job at the incident and were not helped by a baying crowd, some with children, calling for the lad to jump." http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/jeering-onlookers-goad-suicidal-teenager/2008/10/02/1222651211750.html?sssdmh=dm16.337842

No kidding.

kids are scaring me more and more these days...they find nothing serious and have become desensitised. that is honestly appalling.

society hasn't changed at all. It really boggles my mind when people are always saying things are getting worse. Go back through history and you'll find tons of information about how people went to public executions and threw fruit or cheered, how people loved to go to see beheadings and murders and suicides. People will always be people and a large percentage of those people are douchebags and always have been. It's an unfortunate thing what happened, I hope those people can sleep well and their consciences don't bother them too much when they come to the realization that in some way they are partially responsible for a person's death.

People are cynical about death, especially in this era...

Ah yes, I saw this on Digg. Insane, isn't it? Those kids give all youth in the UK a bad name.