A University of South Florida student on spring break in Key West was critically injured Wednesday evening after falling from a hotel roof.

Daniel Hoppe was jumping from one Day's Inn building roof to another -- ultimately to jump into the swimming pool two stories below -- about 4:30 p.m. when he slipped and fell 20 feet onto the concrete sidewalk, according to police and friends.

Hoppe was taken to Key West International Airport, where the LifeNet rescue helicopter airlifted him to Ryder Trauma Center in Miami with head injuries, police said. Dispatchers said he was vomiting blood and had a possible skull fracture.

Hoppe, who was born in 1984, and a group of friends from the same university were staying at the hotel at 3852 N. Roosevelt Blvd., according to a friend who asked that his name not be published.

Another man who declined to speak to The Citizen told police he had made the leap from one rooftop to another, with Hoppe behind him. Hoppe also made the jump, but apparently his wet shoes caused him slip and fall backward off the roof, the friend said. He told police they had just made the same jump two or three times before.

The men had been drinking, police said.

"I just got back from the beach when I heard a woman scream," another friend said. "He was awake and talking, but spitting some blood. He was asking if he was going to be OK."

There was a group of about 10 people in the pool when Hoppe fell.

Police said they don't expect charges to be filed.

alinhardt@keysnews.com