Liam Payne was happily bonding with his fans in the days before his untimely death.
The former One Direction band member was seen animatedly talking with fans outside the Palacio Duhau hotel on September 30 in a video exclusively obtained by Us Weekly. While a group stood around him, Payne asked a student what classes she was taking.
“English classes?” he asked, to which she nodded her head and raised her phone for a selfie. While they posed for a picture, another fan added, “We all learned English for One Direction.”
Payne seemed pleased with that admission. “That’s good!” he said before smiling for another picture with a fan.
After the interaction, fan Noelia Verón exclusively spoke with Us about the moment. “I waited there for a while to take a picture of him because I couldn’t believe it. He came closer to the fans, he took pictures,” Verón, 29, said. “We shared a moment. In my case I [jokingly] told him that I had escaped from [school]; I had abandoned the class and he made a joke about it, like, ‘I couldn’t believe it’ [and asked] what kind of class I was doing, what I was studying.”
Verón, who has been a fan of Payne’s career since she was a teenager, called the encounter “pretty cool.”
“He looked good,” she said. “The relationship with fans was unique. He took the time to greet each one of them, to take a picture, to be there, to share. He [showed] a lot of emotion.”
In another video shared exclusively with Us, Payne was surrounded by fans at the same hotel on October 1. At the beginning of the clip, he gestured for a fan to come embrace him. When she handed him a booklet with images to sign, he said, “Te amo,” which translates to “I love you.”
Fan Luana Matzkin, who ran into Payne with her sister Kiara, exclusively told Us that he seemed “very happy” and was “laughing.” She added, “He stayed for an hour or more taking pictures with all the fans who were there.”
Us confirmed on Wednesday, October 16, that Payne died at age 31 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Emergency Services Chief Alberto Crescenti later said Payne suffered “serious injuries” after falling from the third-floor balcony of a hotel.
“Our role was to head there quickly, give medical attention and try to resuscitate him, but his injuries were incompatible with life,” Crescenti said, according to La Nacion. “Based on what the team saw, there was apparently a cranial fracture and extremely serious injuries that led to his immediate death.”
Crescenti added, “The team could do absolutely nothing. There was no resuscitation because it was confirmed that he had died. The whole body had very serious injuries.”
LUIS ROBAYO/AFP via Getty Images Just hours after One Direction alum Liam Payne died on Wednesday, October 16 after a fall from his CasaSur Palermo hotel room, fans began gathering outside the Buenos Aires hotel to pay their respects. In an impromptu vigil, fans lit candles, sang One Direction songs and cried as police continued […]
A preliminary autopsy report revealed that Payne died from “internal and external” hemorrhages.
“No injuries were observed that would suggest the involvement of third parties,” the translated autopsy obtained by Us reads. “The prosecutor’s office indicated that, based on the position in which the body was found and the injuries from the fall, it is presumed that Payne did not adopt a reflexive posture to protect himself and may have fallen in a state of semi or total unconsciousness.”
A partial autopsy report published by ABC News on Monday, October 21, showed that Payne had “pink cocaine,” cocaine, benzodiazepine and crack in his system. An aluminum pipe was reportedly found in his hotel room as well.
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