Man Falls to Death in TX After Police Standoff Atop Crane
- Posted on May 29, 2012 at 7:47am by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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A man dangles from a crane in Dallas just before falling to his death after a lengthy police standoff.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Texas (The Blaze/AP) — Dallas police say a man who climbed a 150-foot construction crane at a college campus has fallen to his death, ending a 15-hour standoff.
Sr. Cpl. Melinda Gutierrez says the man died early Tuesday. His name was not immediately released and Gutierrez did not say why the man scrambled up the crane Monday afternoon.
Police sent tactical officers to the top of the crane, at Southern Methodist University. The man clambered out of the cab and dangled from it, holding on with only his hands, before falling at 1:47 a.m. Tuesday. KDFW-TV has more:
About 1:45 a.m., officers climbed the 150-foot crane to talk to the man, who was believed to be armed. Officers discovered the suspect had coated the door handle with some kind of greasy lubricant, and also sprayed a can of something similar at officers as they approached him.
When officers entered the cab, the man climbed out through the broken windshield and dangled from the bottom of the cab for about 15 seconds before falling to the ground below.
Police did not immediately say whether the man had a weapon, as he earlier claimed.
The crane towers over the campus in University Park, which was closed for Memorial Day.
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IMaTELLaU
Posted on May 30, 2012 at 12:40pmsharpton, jackson, farakan, shabiz are organizing rallies to protest white cranes!!!!!! they want holder to investigate why a white crane let an unarmed black man to fall to his death. So what if he had WD-40 on his hands making it difficult to keep his grip…… wait this just in……. WD-40 has been named an accomplice, by the justice dept……
Report Post »rl
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 6:34pmGOOD….. he saved the taxpayers A LOT of money….
I’M sure his lawyer is crying………..
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 4:39pm….this just in…..a man wanted for car jacking fell or jumped off a a crane. His family immediately got a shyster lawyer (is there any other kind) and sued the crane company for not having it roped off.
Report Post »izukiddin
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 3:29pmOne less car jacker. Good riddance.
Report Post »TSUNAMI-22
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 1:54pmIf I’d have been there I would have held up a big card with a “9.5″ on it.
Report Post »Bluedog78
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 12:12pmLets see if I can get this right………Looks like the revenue collecting jack booted thugs in uniform have killed another citizen without any due process. Welcome to the police state!! Sarcasm off…
Report Post »rdietz7
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 11:11amWow, that was high up there. Anyone know where to see the fall?
Report Post »liberalescheisskopf
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 10:01amAwww, too bad. Ok next story……
Report Post »Desert Dog
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 9:57amOne less problem in the world…..
Report Post »essay
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 9:38amOK, I’m going to say this once… the report is sketchy at best. I live in Dallas, and here’s the story: He carjacked a truck at knifepoint, the truck was found on the SMU campus, near a crane which was constructing a DORM, which was NEAR the Bush Library. The police FOUND, DID NOT CHASE the man in the top of the crane, because he was throwing things down to the street. After 12 hours, they went up to the crane, which HE had sprayed with WD-40, and he got out jumped or slipped to his death. What part of this is the police department’s fault? What part of this involves a poor, pitiful CRIMINAL? I almost never have to worry about slipping from a crane, because I hardly ever carjack, and climb one to get away.
Report Post »loriann12
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 11:09amThanks, I live near Dallas and was wondering as I hadn’t heard anything about it. Crane operators don’t normally just wig out and have a standoff with the police. So, he wasn’t the operator, he ran there to escape police after a car jacking….give a couple guess what his racial background is.
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 11:21amThank you for REPORTING on the full story.
Report Post »ksutex1
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 5:04pmI won‘t say you’re incorrect about this not being the police officer’s fault because it was NOT. However the way you just talk about this man as if he is nothing but a good for nothing low life criminal is just so wrong, stupid, ignorant, moronic. I could really just keep on going. You DON’T know that man. He very well may have been a good for nothing degenerate, but he also may not have been. He may have hit an all time low in his life and and thought that dying would be the only way to escape his pain. I’m not saying you may not be right about what you said, but there is no way to prove your comments validity. You have no right to judge that man. You’re a disgrace.
Oh yeah, Legalize Marijuana!
Report Post »Snake
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 7:40pm@ESSAY
Report Post »First let me be clear that I could care less that this worthless tard fell to his death.
However if you are asking what the cops did or didn’t do that would make any of this their fault, well let me answer.
This guy obviously not fully in grasp with reality spent 12 hours in the cab of a crane 150 feet in the air surrounded by glass on three sides. There was only a rumor he had a gun and plenty of video to prove there wasn’t. At this point anyone….and I do mean anyone should have realized this probably was not going to go down very good. I would have put the odds on him coming out of this without falling at less than 30%. Here in the big city of Dallas I am positive our fire department has a jump bag or two and I am also positive that one of many stunt coordinators in our filming industry could have found a bag or two as well and several of them could have easily been set up within minutes once they knew he had no gun.
There is also NO reason why someone didn’t climb that tower sooner. OMG why did they wait until the wee early hours – STUPID!!! They had established communications with him, so it should have been no problem to let him know a unarmed negotiator was climbing up to TALK and there would be a sniper watching him. One wrong move towards the person climbing up and boom, its all over.
Instead the wonderful Dallas police tards did nothing but allow someone already having issues get tired and more tired and even more tired. DPD = DUMB POLICE DEPAR
essay
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 9:22pm@ SNAKE – they climbed up when communication with him failed. He had a record, and was schizophrenic, unmedicated, and possibly homeless. DPD did what they should have done. He fell to his death because he sprayed the area with grease to keep anyone from approaching, and it looks as though he slipped on it. He was the author of his own destiny.
Report Post »sawbuck
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 8:55amWell ..here we are…The police are either Hero’s for thwarting a ..
Shooter having the high ground…OR they were just a tad impatient .
It was around 1:45am in the mourning ..
Not hardly a time for someone to do a “ watch-tower shooting spree”…
I’m going to go with.. The police were a little impatient
And they need to brush up on their “negotiating skills”
What was their hurry.. like he was going to sprout wings and fly.
What did the guy have.. a can of red-bull…?
Report Post »wakeus_com
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 9:24amYes, let’s shut down an entire university so we can wait on some car jacking criminal madman to decide to climb down from the very-dangerous-to-the-public heavy equipment that he was trespassing on. Police are there to POLICE, not to cater, not to be psychiatrists or therapists, not to care about the criminal, but to care about protecting the public.
I support the police in their action. This person made their choice, and it was a poor one.
Report Post »sawbuck
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 10:00amEasy there wakus..
Report Post »Yeah like I’m going to defend some wack-job..
I took the story at face value ,without going to the links.
It was 1:45 on Tuesday mourning…(after holiday)
Do schools open at mid-night..?
I was thinking what’s the rush ..
piper60
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 8:42amO.K., WHY was the man being chased up a crane by the cops? Was he high on drugs? Follow up, people.
Report Post »bigdaddyt46
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 9:27amhe was wanted for car-jacking. he was not chased up there by the police. when an officer confronted him he said “get back i have a gun” and then climbed up there in an attempt to get away from police.
Report Post »to those saying the police were impatient, it was 15 hours from begining to end so how is that impatient? really people watch the video before posting it explained it all in 3 minuets.
RightPolitically
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 8:26amWhy not just surround the area, stand down and wait him out?
Report Post »mama6
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 8:15amI think I’d rather go to jail than fall to my death!!!!!
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 8:05amDon’t know what drove this man to do things that lead to his death. But, I’ll bet the Blame Bush crowd to strike it up soon since this crane was reported last night to have been a part of the construction equipment being used on the G.W. Bush Library.
Report Post »Blazebanned
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 8:12am@RJ.
Report Post »What ever drove him to do it, to me doesnt matter,this nut job is dead, thats all that matters, the world is a safer place now…
Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on May 29, 2012 at 8:19amIndeed, blame Bush and blame the police. May his family find peace though.
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