The Windy City woke up to a peculiar incident Monday morning, a man clung to a rope off the Trump Tower in Chicago for more than 13 hours. His action was driven by the motive to have an audience with President Trump. Authorities have since taken him into custody.
What We Know:
- Early reports say the yet unknown man, who is estimated to be in his early 20s, was first discovered dangling off the side of the high rise at around 5:30 p.m. local time on Sunday. The Chicago Police Department (CPD) stated he was hanging near the 16th-floor landing of Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago.
- According to a tweet by Chicago police spokesman Tom Ahern, the situation in the morning was handled peacefully by negotiators and the suspect in question is safe and in custody, no injuries or further incidents occurred. Ahern’s Twitter thread later said Commander Patricia Casey, Cmdr. Sean Loughran, Cmdr. Jill Stevens and Negotiators later addressed the media from Trump Hotel on Wabash.
- Other details revealed by Detective Hector Matias was that the man was in possession of a knife and even threatened to cut the line at one point if police tried to help him up. The Chicago police negotiator told reporters that the scenario was “extremely challenging” to deal with and it was certainly something to take their time with and have patience.
“There’s different tactics in our toolbox that we utilize and I think today we probably utilized every single one of them,” he continued.
- The over half-day standoff with the man came to a close when police were finally able to come to a conclusion with the victim and resolve the incident which could have gone south quickly. Soon after police talked him into surrendering, they pulled him up to the landing where officers waited to give him a helping hand.
- One of the three officers who were there at the spur of the moment stretched their hands out to secure the man and then a few other officers came in to quickly take him into custody. Chicago Police Cmdr. Patricia Casey praised her officer’s effort in caring for this man.
“They were patient and kind and spent hours dealing with this distraught man who was in apparent crisis, saying that he had many social issue that he wanted to discuss with reporters,” Casey stated. “What could have been a tragedy ended up as a situation that was resolved without incident.”
Major details about the entire event have not been released by the CPD. Among the various questions many people still have, such as why he was hanging there, what he wanted to speak on, he got there in the first place, the only thing known at this point was the man’s strong desire to speak with Trump. Police have also not shared what concessions were made to talk the man out of hanging off the building.
