Caitlin Ochs
Hundreds of heartbroken fans gathered in Washington Square Park Saturday night for a mass vigil to honor and remember singer Liam Payne – three days after the former boy bander tragically fell to his death from a hotel balcony in Argentina.
Nearly 400 mourning fans comforted each other and sang along to Payne’s beloved music blasting over a boombox as they surrounded the arch at the New York City park to celebrate the life of the 31-year-old former One Direction star in a candlelit tribute.
“I feel like I lost someone I knew,” Kailey Boslo, 19, told The Post as she arrived at the vigil with a poster she made to include in the memorial.
Boslo said she was introduced to Payne when she was 10-year-olds after he appeared on The X Factor, and continued to adore his career, along with the other former members of One Direction.
“I feel like we grew up together.”
Ivanna Portilla, 25, and her sister Phoebe Portilla, 23, sat together near a fence with a photo of Payne, a white rose and a candle laid out on the ground.
“He impacted so many people’s lives,” the elder sister said.
“Liam’s infectious personality has always made me happy. I used to sit in my room in high school and in middle school and spend endless hours with One Direction. He and his music just means so much to everybody.”
The tearful crowd sported One Direction garb and brought candles, flowers, letters, balloons, paintings, and pictures, among other things, to build a memorial they embraced throughout the vigil, planned by a loyal supporter who wanted to honor the profound memories Payne’s career has provided fans over the years.
Alyssa Delvito, 25, brought a homemade candle to honor Payne, explaining that One Direction helped her through tough times growing up and gave her a community of friends around the globe, comparing the band to The Beatles.
“I just broke down. I felt like the end of an era. Like I was saying goodbye to my childhood,” she said, explaining how she felt the moment she learned of the star’s death.
The singer was reportedly under the influence of a dangerous substance dubbed “Cristal,” when he plunged to his death from the third-floor balcony of his room at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel Wednesday night, Buenos Aires cops told TMZ on Friday.
The substance can cause users to experience hallucinations and extreme highs and extreme lows, often making them aggressive, cops said.
Police believe the drug could be behind the singer’s “erratic” behavior before his death and could have caused an hallucination that played a part in his fatal fall.
While it remains unclear if his fall was intentional or accidental, an autopsy released on Thursday indicated that Payne may have been unconscious when he fell.
The singer’s body was found on the ground floor outside the Buenos Aires hotel with “a bottle of whiskey, a lighter and a cellphone,” sources told TMZ.
Medics said Payne’s injuries were “incompatible with life” — first responders described a “cranial fracture” that led to “immediate death,” according to La Nacion.
Photos from inside Payne’s hotel suite after his death show a chaotic scene. Trashed rooms, champagne bottles, a smashed television and a mess of drug paraphernalia, including powders and tinfoil.
The images also reveal a Dove soap packet, an empty glass, the remains of a burned candle and the scorched top of a drink can on a desk — along with traces of a white powder that authorities will test to confirm if it could be cocaine, reported La Nacion, Argentina’s largest newspaper, which verified the alarming photos.
Payne, who leaves behind his 7-year-old son, had gone to rehab twice previously — when he was a member of One Direction and after the group split in 2015 — and had commented on how addiction made him suicidal.
He was allegedly telling people that he was sober in the months before his death, a source with direct knowledge told TMZ.
“That’s not a way someone should die,” New York University student Busola Oshin, 20, said.
“It’s horrible. He was only 31. I just hope he rests in peace.”