CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) — Police took a man into custody Monday morning after he dangled from the side of Chicago’s Trump Tower for more than 13 hours.
The incident started at about 6 p.m. Sunday, according to NewsNation affiliate WGN-TV.
Chicago Police Cmdr. Patty Casey said a “distraught man” had rappelled over a ledge from the 16th-floor patio of the hotel.
Casey said Chicago police, along with the Chicago Fire Department, SWAT, K9 units, a Russian interpreter and hotel security all helped to resolve the incident. No one was injured.
“What could have been a tragedy ended up as a situation that was resolved without event,” Casey said at a news conference Monday. “Today, the Chicago police department and their partners literally saved this young man’s life.”
Casey said Det. Hector Matias, who has been a negotiator for 22 years, helped bring the incident to its final resolution.
“It was extremely challenging,” Matias said, describing the negotiation process. He said the man had a knife in his hand and threated to cut his harness if police pulled him up.
Matias described how the situation ended: “We agreed on a couple of concessions that we could agree to, that were safe, and at that point, he agreed to drop the knife and be helped up.”
Police have not released the identity of the man, and the investigation is ongoing.