Aerial view of palm trees framing the city skyline on October 27, 2021 in Miami, Florida. Joe Raedle/Getty Images The family of a rags-to-riches Israeli immigrant living in L.A. is calling foul after he died from a fall from a balcony at a South Florida resort this week, moments after the former reality TV star texted his pals that he was on his way to meet them for a night out.
Yakir Levi, 45, was at the Acqualina Resort and Residences in Sunny Isles Beach on Monday when he fell to his death. Just before his body was seen plummeting from a 28th-floor balcony, he’d texted friends, “I’m coming,” just as they pulled up to the valet — then heard a loud crash and screams, a stark detail that has left his friends and family suspicious of the cause of death.
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Levi’s close friend Eran Hersh told the Daily Mail there is no way the “larger than life” owner of a building restoration company died by suicide — he just enjoyed his life too much.
“They were all meeting up to go out. It just doesn’t make any sense,” Hersh told the tabloid. “It’s impossible for me to think that he just committed suicide. The day before he was on a boat smoking a cigar, having the time of his life.”
The investigation is being handled by the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office Homicide Bureau; detectives with the bureau recovered Levi’s cellphone and bag after his fatal fall. They said they are treating the incident as an “unclassified death.”
Born in Ramla, Israel, Levi exemplifies the immigrant American dream. He moved to the U.S. with $300 in his pocket and went on to launch and run a multimillion-dollar company by his mid-40s. His success in the States landed him on the Israeli reality series The Americans, which follows Israeli expatriates chasing the American dream in the United States.
Levi, who was married with three children, is expected to be buried in Israel, according to a report from the Jerusalem Post.
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