VIDEO – Richard Descoings has been found lifeless in his New York hotel room under as yet unknown circumstances. US police did not find “evidence of foul play.”
The director ofInstitute of Political Studies (IEP) of Paris, Richard Descoings, died on Tuesday in New York, in a room at the Michelangelo hotel near Times Square. The information, revealed by Le Figaro, was confirmed by the deputy director of Sciences Po Paris, Hervé Crès, who did not specify the circumstances of this death.
The body of the senior official is evacuated from the hotel. Photo credits: CHIP EAST / REUTERS
Her naked body was found lifeless in her hotel room in Midtown, Manhattan. Several sources mention the possibility of suicide and a source close to the police quoted by the Reuters agency speaks of “suspicious circumstances”. New York Police have opened an investigation.
Early this morning, Deputy Police Chief Paul Browne, however, said investigators have not found “evidence of foul play.” He added that the disorder in the room was explained by the intervention of the emergency services who had sought to revive Richard Descoings after discovering him dead at around 1 p.m. local time (6 p.m. Paris time). According to the correspondent of RTL There, Richard Descoings’ laptop and phone were found in his hotel room and were not thrown out of his bedroom window, as NBC claimed.
No sign of tampering
Richard Descoings died in a room at the Michelangelo Hotel, near Times Square. Photo credits: STAN HONDA / AFP
Richard Descoings was in the United States at the invitation of the Secretary General of the United Nations, on the occasion of a meeting of great university leaders, the “Global Colloquium of University Presidents”, under the aegis of the Secretary General United Nations. According to Reuters, he did not show up on Tuesday morning at the opening of this conference. Colleagues then telephoned his hotel. When staff members went to his room for the first time, they thought they heard him snoring and did not insist.
Richard Descoings still not appearing at the conference, the employees again showed up in front of his room and, this time, opened the door. It was there that they discovered the body of the senior official. There was no sign of the break-in, but there was evidence to suggest that alcohol had been consumed. Witnesses say that several people were talking late at night in room 723. Tuesday morning, two people would have left the room, according to the same client quoted by the New-York Times.
New York police spokesperson confirmed to the newspaper Release that the result of the autopsy would not be known for “several days”.
“At the request of his family,” said Sciences Po, his personal Twitter and Facebook accounts were deleted overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday. An element which excludes the possibility that Richard Descoings himself, before his death, closed these two pages.
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Richard Descoings, 53, spent 16 years at the head of the rue Saint-Guillaume school. In four terms, he profoundly changed this institution: opening up to students from poor families, foreign students (40% of the current total), creation of six campuses in the provinces, increase in registration fees tempered by scholarships, etc.
At the end of 2011, Richard Descoings, who was also a member of the Council of State, had sparked controversy by announcing the abolition of the general culture test at the entrance exam to Sciences Po. In January, his remuneration, far above that of university bosses and other directors of grandes écoles, had also been debated.
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