Deputies talk suicidal man down from bridge in South El Monte


SOUTH EL MONTE >> Deputies spent more than an hour persuading a suicidal man to climb down from a pedestrian bridge spanning a 60 Freeway offramp in South El Monte Friday, officials said.
The incident began about 7:10 p.m. on the bridge at Cogswell Road, just east of Santa Anita Avenue, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Ismael Chavez said.
Officials received reports of a man sitting atop the fence lining the pedestrian bridge, the lieutenant said.
California Highway Patrol officers shut down the Santa Anita Avenue offramp of the westbound 60 Freeway as Los Angeles County firefighters set up an air cushion below the bridge, officials said. A specially-trained sheriff’s Mental Evaluation Team was summoned to the scene to speak with the distraught man.
After more than an hour, deputies persuaded the man to climb down and accept help, Chavez said. He was taken for psychiatric evaluation.
The offramp was re-opened about 8:30 p.m., according to the CHP.

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211 suspect jumps from parking structure

From the “Only in Pasadena” file:

PASADENA – Cornered atop a parking structure with no way out, a suspected bank robber made a desperate move Monday as officers closed in – he jumped from the roof of the five-story structure.

Seriously injured, the man was taken to a hospital, where he was in critical condition, authorities said.

Workers in the area said they heard a scream, then heard a loud thump; several said they then saw the man lying on the ground before paramedics arrived.

About an hour earlier, at about 9:16 a.m., the man held up the California National Bank, 101 N. Lake Ave., telling a clerk he had a gun, police said.

He ran out with an undisclosed amount of cash. But a person inside the bank, either an employee or a teller, ran after the man, calling 9-1-1 and providing police with a “good” description of the robber, Pasadena Police Department spokeswoman Janet Pope Givens said.

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