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Suicidal Man Scales New Bridge Catwalk: Ironworkers Pin Him Down Until Police Arrive

Posted on: Saturday, 3 June 2006, 03:00 CDT

By Paul Sand, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash.

May 23--An apparently suicidal man climbed a mesh catwalk on the new Tacoma Narrows bridge up to its 510-foot-tall western tower Monday, before being pinned down by ironworkers and finally taken into custody by Washington State Patrol troopers.

The 29-year-old man, who told troopers he was homeless, called dispatchers about 5 p.m. and said he was going to the bridge to commit suicide, Trooper Mark Lewis said. A short time later, he drove onto a construction site on the bridge's western side and told a worker he was lost, Lewis said.

The worker gave the man directions, and when he turned his back, the man slipped by and began scaling the bridge's northern, 12-foot-wide, open-air catwalk, Lewis said.

Brandishing a small pocketknife and a bolt cutter, the man reached the top of the tower and encountered about a half dozen ironworkers, Lewis said.

"He wasn't being aggressive," Lewis said. "He just held the knife and told people he had the knife. I think he was just looking for attention."

Several of the workers pinned the man until Tacoma police and troopers arrived and took him into custody shortly before 6 p.m., he said.

They escorted him off the tower in an orange construction elevator, then walked him up 11 flights of an exposed staircase on the side of the existing bridge. From there, troopers, officers and workers walked him along a deck under the bridge's westbound lanes, where drivers sped toward Gig Harbor, oblivious to the situation. Troopers talked with the man, patted him down, and, after a few minutes, placed him in a squad car.

Lewis said the man was admitted to Puget Sound Residential Treatment Facility, a Pierce County-operated mental health facility in Tacoma. He told troopers he was an alcoholic and addicted to drugs. Troopers impounded the car he was driving, a red 1994 Toyota Tercel, Lewis said.

Erin Hunter, spokeswoman for the bridge builder, Tacoma Narrows Constructors, said officials would "review everything (today), and security will definitely be one of those things."

Paul Sand: 253-597-8872

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Copyright (c) 2006, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The News Tribune

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