Ian Crystal mourned by friends after liquor company CEO died doing flip at NY concert
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Friends and acquaintances of a 46-year-old man are mourning him after he fell to his death while doing a body flip during a rock concert. Ian Matthew Crystal died Friday, August 20, after his stunt went wrong at Citi Field in Queens during a Dead & Company concert, police sources said.
“He attempted a body flip, fell, and landed on the balcony below,” the source added.
Reports said that Crystal died after landing on the balcony with his head hitting the ground from about 30-50 feet in height. The tragedy struck during the intermission of the band’s concert -- which featured former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, and John Mayer, at around nine in the night. Soon police were contacted and he was rushed to the New York-Presbyterian Queens Hospital but was declared dead.
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A spokesperson from the New York Police Department, Detective Sophia Mason, said that Crystal’s wounds were “consistent with a fall from an elevated position.” While Sean Egan, a witness, said, “We saw someone fall from this ledge.” Another witness stated that the victim was not responding after the fall. They added: “His brother came downstairs and found out he jumped. His brother was with him. He was crying.”
Meanwhile, people who knew Crystal remembered him as a “good dude”. Forty-year-old Juan Torres said, “Good dude, quiet. We never had an issue with him. He was a cool guy. He was healthy. He was always working out. I remember every morning when I would come in, I’d see him running.” It has been said the deceased once lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and had a dog named Beatrice.
A friend of Crystal said that he “was always down for the next adventure or for a long conversation that could go deep or off the rails in the best way. Left a long list of people that will miss you.”
Who was Ian Matthew Crystal?
As per Crystal’s LinkedIn profile, he was “co-founder and CEO of Evolutions Spirits Inc. as well as manage several consulting / investment projects through Crystal Ventures.” He had an MBA in marketing from Emory University - Goizueta Business School and a BBA in marketing and finance from the University of Maryland - Robert H Smith School of Business.
He had mentioned on his Linkedin page, “My passion for telling a story through brands, communication, product development and entertainment marketing, has led to business growth and acceleration in brand value. Some of the brands I managed through the years include; ABSOLUT Vodka, Malibu Rum and Stoli Vodka.”
“During my time serving in both traditional and non-traditional brand roles, I had the opportunity to lead many unique brand / artist collaboration projects including; ABSOLUT & Jay-Z, ABSOLUT & Swedish House Mafia, Malibu & NE YO and ABSOLUT Brooklyn & Spike Lee. Serving as an Executive Producer and Co-creator on several high profile projects, exposed me to leading edge brand content development strategies. These new strategies helped create new-to-world concepts and structures that I use today in my brand development process. I continue to push into new marketing and product development territories, leveraging my experience launching 30+ brand creations / extensions. Some previous new-to-world highlights include; ABSOLUT City Series, Stoli Blueberri, and Malibu Red,” the page adds.
