Dad of teen who died falling from an LA bridge says it couldn't have been a social media stunt because he didn't have his phone

• The dad of the teen who fatally fell from an LA bridge said social media had nothing to do with it.
• Paul Luna told ABC7 that his son didn't even have his phone on him at the time of the tragedy.

The father of the teenage boy who police said fell to his death while climbing a new Los Angeles, California, bridge during an apparent social media stunt disputed authorities' narrative and said that his son didn't even have his phone on him at the time.

Paul Luna told ABC7 that his 17-year-old son Anthony Luna's Saturday fall from the 6th Street Viaduct was just a terrible accident and that it was "100% false" that the teen was trying to post to social media when he fatally plunged from the iconic span.

"The chief of police, they're stating that Anthony did it for a video stunt of some sort, maybe likes or something, but that's 100% false," Luna told ABC7, adding that his son "didn't even care about social media."

Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore said during a Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners meeting on Tuesday that the teen slipped while "climbing upon one of the arches in order to post, apparently, a social media broadcast."

"Tragically, we see that location, while it has spawned a great deal of pride in Los Angeles, it has also, unfortunately, served as a backdrop now for tragedies such as this," Moore added.

Luna told NBC4 that his son was just playing around with friends at the time of the Saturday tragedy.

"Since that bridge has opened, people are riding bikes over that thing. I've seen people roller skating over that thing, walking over it, sleeping on top of it. So, it made it look like it was pretty possible," Luna told the news outlet.

When asked for comment on Friday, a spokesperson for the LAPD referred Insider to Moore's remarks and said, "There is no further statement at this time."