Pass The Ammo

Photo by JJ Honeycutt

I don’t know this guy. He watched us down below as JJ and I were shooting photos of the river. We didn’t really think much of him, but we wondered if he was the reason cops had both ends of the bridge blocked off. JJ and I chatted casually about photography, and how the river is so low this time of year. I’ve never really been to this part of Spokane.

We noticed people were coming down to the area we were at and standing at the base of the bridge, below the man. We gathered the clues, and realized he was a jumper. This was around 8pm. We had just left the northern lights brewery, after enjoying some chicken wings, creme ale and discussion about life and work. When we discovered what this guys intentions were… I had a pretty negative attitude about it. I said, “If he wanted to kill himself, he would have done it already… it’s probably just a cry for help”. 10 o’clock the next morning, I learn that he’s still sitting there. Unbelievable. 3pm, I learned that he did jump.

I felt bad for the attitude I had, but at the same time I can’t help but feel angry and sorry for him. What a selfish thing to do. What a cheap shot to anyone that cares. They say he had mental problems. I wouldn’t know.

I still feel bad. I was both skeptical and cynical toward the guy. But now that it’s done, I can’t say I don’t care.

Apparantly, the police had coaxed him to come down and help him with his problems. As he climbed off the ledge, plain clothed officers shot him with a tazer. Only one prong made contact, and it wasn’t enough to bring him down. He climbed back up and jumped.

Here’s the story as of the time of this post.

The Monroe Street Bridge opened this evening after a man who sat on a railing on the Monroe Street Bridge throughout last night and most of today jumped. Police have not released his name.

The man’s father, a Spokane resident who asked not to be identified, said his son died on impact after landing on rocks.

At a press conference about an hour after the man’s jump at 3:20 p.m., Spokane Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said he had a history of mental illness and had made similar suicide attempts involving bridges, including the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
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Because of his mental illness, she said his name would not be immediately released.

Negotiators from the county and Spokane County Mental Health had been trying to get the man to surrender to authorities, Kirkpatrick said.

At one point, police negotiators thought they had reached a tentative agreement with the man in which they would take him into custody, thus allowing him to save face after a 20-hour standoff, which disrupted traffic and drew numerous onlookers.

The take-down strategy called for the man to come off of the railing onto the bridge where officers would initiate one Taser application and then take him into custody.

But Kirkpatrick said only one prong of the Taser made contact with the man, which allowed him to get back up on the railing and jump.

Officers who approached the man during the take-down were both in uniform and non-uniform.

The incident began about 7:20 p.m. Thursday when the man was spotted sitting on the south end of the bridge with his legs over the side. Police sought a plain-clothes officer to initiate contact with the man, who appeared agitated.

By late Thursday, police had offered him bottled water and had established enough contact that they were able to get his name. About three hours into the situation, the man stood up, urinated and sat back down, an act he would repeat as Friday wore on.

“He was not engaging with negotiators, he never exceeded one word answers,” Kirkpatrick said.

In addition to police and county mental health negotiators, firefighter-paramedics and the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office dive team stood by.

Everyone involved in the effort to help the man were shaken by his decision to jump, Kirkpatrick said, since there’s generally a higher chance for success when the situation lasts as long as it did.

“It’s a tragic, tragic thing,” said Spokane Mayor Dennis Hession.

He was at the scene throughout the day Friday talking with police and later consoling family members after the man jumped. The family was not ready to release information about the man.

Hession said he stood by the efforts made by the city. “The officers were around him all day long and we’re supportive of the work they did,” he said.

Mandy McGhee, who had been watching from the library, said the man had come down from the ledge when officers approached him. She said the man then jumped over the ledge and hit the rocks below.

“I was praying for him,” she said.

During the 20 hours the man sat on the bridge, some onlookers shouted at him. According to the Revised Code of Washington, if a person urges someone to follow through on a suicide attempt, it can be a class C felony.

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