A standoff involving a man dangling from the side of Trump Tower in Chicago ended peacefully after 13 hours. Police responded to a report of a suicidal man on Sunday (October 18) around 5:30 p.m. local time. When officers arrived, they found the man suspended from a rope and harness off a 16th-floor landing.
Police negotiators were called to the building and tried to convince the man to climb back up onto the landing. The man, who spoke Russian, demanded to speak with President Donald Trump and said he wanted to get his message to the media.
The negotiators spent over 13 hours talking to the man, who appeared to be in his 20s, trying to calm him down. At one point, the man pulled out a knife and threatened to cut the rope.
“They were patient and kind and spent hours dealing with this distraught man who was in an apparent crisis, saying he had many social issues that he wanted to discuss with reporters,” Commander Patty Casey, who heads the youth investigations unit, said during a press conference.
Eventually, the man agreed to surrender, and the officers pulled him back inside the building.
Casey praised Detective Hector Matias, who spent 14 hours at the scene after spending 17 hours on a different call over the weekend.
“It was really a team effort. What could’ve been a tragedy ended up as a situation that was resolved without incident. Today, the Chicago Police Department and their partners literally saved this young man’s life,” she said.
The man was taken to the hospital and will undergo a mental evaluation. Officials said they expect to file charges against him but did not specify what those charges will be.
Authorities said the man did not live in Trump Tower and that investigators were trying to determine how he got to the balcony.
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