Police Avert Suicidal Leap

By Anne La Jeunesse

Thursday, April 15 -- A distraught man allegedly bent on committing suicide perched himself atop a downtown parking structure and held police at bay Wednesday for eight hours, blocking traffic for several blocks until crisis negotiators talked him out of a fatal leap, police said.

The man, who was not identified, climbed to the top of Parking Structure No. 4 at Fifth Street near Broadway at about 11:30 a.m., saying he wanted to jump, said Lt. P.J. Guido of the Santa Monica Police Department.

The area between Santa Monica Boulevard and Broadway along Fourth Street was blocked off to insure the safety of motorists, pedestrians and the upset man, police said.

There was heavy traffic, we wanted to make sure it was safe, Guido said.

During lengthy negotiations with the allegedly suicidal man, members of the Los Angeles City Fire Department were summoned to be at the ready to deploy an airbag capable of safely catching a person jumping from a height of 100 feet, Guido said. Such airbags are able to be fully inflated within four minutes.

They were ready to deploy, but they didn't, because if deployed, it might have angered or agitated the suspect, Guido said.

Before it was deemed necessary by crisis negotiators to deploy the airbag, the unidentified man agreed to climb down from a ledge or perch about 15 feet above the parking structure, a location where it had been very difficult for officers to get him without him seeing them, Guido said.

After climbing down a ladder provided for him, the man was taken to the University of California - Los Angeles Hospital for a 72-hour psychiatric evaluation, Guido said.

We are not identifying him right now while he's being evaluated, Guido said. But, this was good work by our crisis negotiators -- they saved a life.