Police are investigating the death of a man who apparently jumped over a fence along the high Mississippi River bluffs in Natchez Wednesday night.

The man reportedly jumped near a walking bridge that crosses a street that leads to the town’s casino which sits a couple hundred feet below the bluff.

Natchez Police Chief Joseph Daughtry said, while the investigation is ongoing, he thinks the man was attempting to take a jump to an intermediate grassy area just below one side of the bridge as a shortcut to the road that goes to the casino, but did not realize that he had jumped too far and instead fell many more feet into an area that has a walking trail below the bluff.

“I was on the scene. We had to call the fire department. Chief Arrington and his firefighters arrived quickly and they had to get him to him and get him strapped up and carry him through the terrain about the length of three football fields to get him help. There was no motor vehicle access where he was. All the while, they were trying to stop his bleeding,” Daughtry said.

The man, who has not been identified by police, succumbed to his injuries.