Police say student leaps to death from hotel

(01-18) 18:03 PST Santa Monica, Calif. (AP) --

Matthew Mezza was a student athlete, leader of his temple's youth group, regular at the pizza place down the street and a 14-year-old whom friends said didn't seem to have a care in the world.

Then police said he suddenly bolted from baseball practice, ran to a high-rise hotel and leaped from the 10th floor to his death.

On Tuesday, friends, fellow students, teammates and seemingly anyone else who had crossed paths with Mezza in laid-back, beachfront Santa Monica over the years struggled for words as they tried to make sense of what could have prompted him to do what he did.

In the end, not one of them could offer an explanation.

"He was one of the brightest kids I've met. He exuded incredible self-confidence and an interest in helping to change the world and make it better," said a subdued Neil Comess-Daniels, rabbi at Beth Shir Shalom where Mezza and his family had worshipped for years.

In pictures posted on Facebook, and at a makeshift memorial near the hotel, the curly haired Mezza is almost always seen with a broad smile on his face. He was the go-to guy for his temple's youth group and a teacher's assistant at its religious school.

To Jeff Everett, who works at Ameci's Pizza, Mezza was the boisterous, friendly kid who dropped by often after school to hang out with friends.

According to those who saw him Friday, the day he died, he was that same person then, too.

"My brother has a fifth-period class with him," said a shaken Andrew Calderon, who visited the memorial. "He told me on that day he was normal. He doesn't know what could have happened."

According to police and some of Mezza's baseball teammates, it was just a few hours after that fifth-period English class when Mezza, a member of the freshman baseball team, ran from the school's practice field, dashed across the street to the Sheraton-Delfina Hotel, smashed a 10th-floor ballroom window and jumped out.

Police declined to release any more information, saying the case is still under investigation.

Deborah Pierce, whose daughter had known Mezza since middle school, said students were told he paused briefly to call his mother to say goodbye.

Mezza's parents couldn't immediately be located for comment and his grandparents did not return a call for comment.

Some of his teammates gave chase but lost Mezza when he ducked into the hotel. They watched in horror when they saw him jump.

"It's been kind of hard for us," said Alex Turner, a centerfielder on the junior varsity team and one of several players to visit the memorial. "We aren't practicing today, just talking about it."

The memorial featured not only flowers and candles, but balloons, baseballs, Santa Monica High baseball caps, posters, even a photo of Mezza with his kindergarten class.

"I wish I had the chance to get to know you better. You had tremendous promise as a student and ballplayer," read an inscription on one of the caps.

The school was providing grief counselors to students and the baseball program said on its website it would dedicate its season to Mezza. A funeral service was scheduled Wednesday at 3 p.m.

Until then, a steady stream of people were dropping by the memorial.

One of them, Santa Monica High senior Jessica Santiago, shook her head when asked if she could think of anything that had happened on campus to provoke Mezza's action.

"How do you explain Samo?" said her friend Yoshi Karikomi, using the school's nickname. "Everybody gets along here. You wouldn't expect to see anybody who would do anything like that."