Newly released audio from a 911 call has shed light on the death of Joshua Allen, a dancer and one-time winner of So You Think You Can Dance. Allen, 36, died on September 30 after being struck by a train in Fort Worth, Texas, in what appears to have been a suicide. In a clip of a 911 call made after the incident, first obtained by the US Sun, an employee from Union Pacific Railroad can be heard telling dispatchers that a “Black male in a tan shirt and glasses was recording on his phone while he was walking towards the train.” A police report from the scene corroborates this story. Two conductors from the train that struck Allen told police they saw the dancer on the tracks before the accident, walking toward their train and using his phone to film as it approached. The conductors said they only spotted Allen when he was about 200 feet in front of the train, too close for them to activate the brakes, and while they honked their horns to alert him, he remained in place until he was struck. Allen had been living in Fort Worth, his hometown, since 2020, after leaving Los Angeles. After winning the fourth season of So You Think You Can Dance in 2008, Allen appeared in the 2010 film Step Up 3D with his fellow alum, Stephen “tWitch” Boss, and in the 2011 remake of Footloose. Boss also died in an apparent suicide in 2022.
If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing or texting 988.
