By Lookout Staff

November 16, 2023 -- A homeless man was arrested last Friday after he chucked a metal pole from the top of a pedestrian bridge onto oncoming traffic on PCH.

Carlos Hernandez-Martinez, 29, has been charged by the District Attorney's Office "with throwing an object at a vehicle with intent to cause great bodily injury," police said.

Suspect prepares to toss pole

He also is charged with multiple counts of resisting arrest after trying to flee from officers responding to the scene.

A YouTube video taken by a bystander captures the incident as it unfolds on the pedestrian bridge that crosses over PCH from Palisades Park.

The footage starts with the suspect standing next to a shopping cart filled with belongings pounding a four-foot pole against the inside of the bridge.

After pacing the walkway he returns to the cart, places the pole on top of the cage and hoists himself up through the opening in the roof as cars stream by.

Suspect climbs on top of pedestrian bridge

The man then stands on the top of the cage's beams as a few passersby walk beneath him. One takes out a phone. The man waits and lifts his arm then raises the pole like a spear.

(Off screen, officers have started to descend the steps that lead down from the park to the bridge, according to police.)

"Hey you all may want to stop that," the man says. "I'm gonna throw some shit on a car."

He then chucks the pole onto PCH in front of a passing car and climbs back down onto the bridge.

Hernandez-Martinez "initially complied with officers' orders to climb off the top of the bridge," said Lt. Erika Aklufi, the Police Department spokesperson.

But as officers approached, he grabbed "another stick and a frying pan from a pile of his belongings and ran," Aklufi said. "He was quickly subdued and placed in handcuffs."