Man threatens to jump from top of parking structure

By David Enders

Daily Staff Reporter

After two tense hours, Ann Arbor police officers removed a man threatening to jump from the 7th floor of the Maynard Street parking structure last night.

The large crowd of onlookers that had amassed on Maynard Street cheered as the man, who police would identify only as a 20-year-old Ann Arbor resident, was pulled off the ledge by a trio of officers.

Police took the man to University Hospitals to undergo psychiatric evaluation, said Sgt. Mark Szynwelski, the officer in charge at the scene.

The man is not a University student or staff member, Szynwelski said.

Police received the call at 5:47 p.m. and removed the man at 7:31 p.m.

Negotiator Bob Taylor, a 30-year veteran of the AAPD, spoke to the man from the other side of a fence on the top floor of the garage for more than an hour.

Taylor said the man did not give a reason for being on the ledge and said little except for commenting on the crowd below.

"He was very, very quiet. Didn't say much at all," Taylor said.

Ann Arbor firefighters finally cut a hole in the fence, allowing them to yank him to safety.

"I told him what was going to happen, and when he didn't say no, we went for it," Taylor said.

Hospital officials would not confirm or deny the admittance of the man to the psychiatric ward following the incident.

As police cordoned off Maynard Street between Liberty and William streets during the event, many crowd members asked why the police or fire department did not provide some kind of safety device such as a net or airbag in case the man jumped.

Szynwelski said neither the AAPD nor the fire department has such a device.

"Would I have liked to have one? Sure," he said.

ALEX WOLK/Daily

ABOVE: A 20-year-old Ann Arbor resident threatens to jump from the Maynard Street parking structure yesterday.

LEFT: Ann Arbor Police Department negotiator Bob Taylor tries to talk the man down.