A man is in Austin Police Custody after he climbed on-top of a tower crane along South Congress early Monday morning, which added to congestion and traffic to Monday morning.
Police Sgt. Mark Brekenridge reported at 4:40am first reponders got a call about a small fire at a South Austin construction site, which led to Austin Fire getting to the scene first, AFD put out the fire but then noticed a man had climbed a nearby crane and throwing tools and trash off the top. They then called in APD around 5:40am.
APD’s Sgt. Mark Brekenridge was among the responding officers, he said the man (who has yet to be identified) was throwing items off the top of the crane and some of it was striking the roadway and could have cause some damage, hence the closure. But he explained the situation could’ve been much worse. “There was always the possibility that he was armed. We didn’t see any indication of that, but we couldn’t take that chance. He put himself into a position where had he been armed, that would’ve been a prime sniper position.”
APD sent in hostage negotiators to talk he man down, Brekenridge believes the man was in the midst of an emotional crisis as the man was giving hostage negotiators erratic demands like, cigarettes to seeing his ex-wife but didn’t provide any contact information.
At 8:40am the man was talked down and Brekenridge added the man was being evaluated by mental health officers while in police custody.
(Photo:Austin Fire Department Twitter)
