An Asian American teaching in Iraq died from a fall from his apartment, reports NBC.
Investigators believe Peter Choi, 35, used a hose to descend one floor down from his apartment’s balcony in Sulaimaniyah and was trying to use it climb back up at the time, according to local police Capt. Sarkoat Mohammed.
He added that it was unclear why Choi had sought access to his downstairs neighbor’s balcony.
According to an email sent to students and alumni by AUIS dean of students Geoffrey Gresk, Choi fell from his balcony on Saturday afternoon and later died at Shar Hospital in the north of the city.
“He was given the best care available and taken to the hospital, but, sadly, he passed away from his injuries,” Gresk said in his statement.
The American University of Iraq, Sulaimani, confirmed in a statement that Choi died from injuries sustained during Saturday’s fall.
“He was an active member of the university community, coaching the men’s basketball team and acting as a faculty adviser for the Environment Keepers club,” AUIS President Bruce Walker Ferguson said.
On the college website, the university describes Choi as an English instructor:
Peter J. Choi joined the APP in May 2014 after having taught English courses in writing composition, grammar, reading comprehension, and literary criticism for the past five years. His current research focuses on the impact of metacognitive instructional methods on the critical analytic abilities in the psychological and behavioral development of language learners.
Choi described himself on his LinkedIn profile as an “Educator, Global Citizen, Explorer.”
He was working as an lecturer in academic English at AUIS and had taught in the Kurdistan region of northeastern Iraq since 2011, reported NBC.
Choi earned a master’s degree from the American College of Education. He also had an undergraduate degree from Saint Mary’s College of California.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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RE: American University instructor dies in mysterious fall: In the West, informants are shot and thrown in ditches.
In the Middle East, I’ve been told for ten years, they are pushed off balconies as if a suicide.
Jumana Salti Soraya Salti Christopher Cramer