Posted on 03/23/2016 8:06:20 AM PDT by jacknhoo
SEATTLE - Police and firefighters spent much of Tuesday and Wednesday morning trying to coax down a man who climbed to the top of downtown Seattle's iconic 80-foot-tall Sequoia tree and has refused to come down.
Crews brought a ladder truck to the scene, at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Stewart Street, after receiving reports of a man stuck in the upper branches of the tall tree, just after 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.
The fire truck's ladder was extended to within a few feet of the man, then negotiators climbed up and tried to speak with him.
So far he has refused to come down, spending the entire night in the treetop.
Earlier, the man threw an apple at medics who came to his rescue. The man, with a long beard and wool cap, was also seen tossing small branches, orange peels, pine cones and other materials at rescuers and claimed to be armed with a knife, Seattle Police said. He later requested a pack of Camel Crush cigarettes.
A KOMO news team at the scene said the man appeared agitated, shouting and "flipping the bird" at spectators. Surrounding witnesses questioned the man's mental health, while others speculated he may be high on drugs.
By hour four, the man had stripped the top of the tree bare. He tore the limbs off and hurled them at officers and firefighters. Even as darkness fell Tuesday evening, the man remain perched at the top. He was still there Wednesday morning at 6:30 a.m.
At one point, the man climbed about halfway down the tree, paused, then climbed all the way back to the top, breaking off new branches during the trip. His behavior alternates between periods of quiet calm and agitated yelling.
A drone zoomed by during the early morning hours, but it quickly left and has not returned.
Meanwhile on the Internet, #ManInTree has gone viral on Twitter becoming a trending hashtag nationwide. An anonymous user even created, and is tweeting from, the Twitter handle "@Man_in_Tree".
The iconic tree was planted at the site in the 1970s and was the focus of an ambitious effort to save it about six years ago after its condition deteriorated. Seattle DOT officials say they will review the health of the tree once the ordeal is over with.
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This is a developing news story. More information will be posted as it becomes available.
http://komonews.com/live/event
Live Link:
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The police should bring that Butterfly girl to either talk him down, or climb up with him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Butterfly_Hill
Simple solution: chainsaw.
Did he just figure out Starbucks was shorting people on their quantity that they advertised?
Only in Seattle, can a man who is “out of his tree” actually be IN a tree.....
I worked in Tacoma for 25 years and actually was involved in a similar incident. I chased a lot of cats to the tops of tall fir trees previously. Once in the middle of a thunder storm. But just like all the cats previously, our guy came down when he got hungry.
Even simpler....ignore him.....he will eventually come down .....
Oh, a tree health review. Should be good for $373,000 in taxpayer-funded studies.
He’ll come down on his own.
Big news. Bigger than towelhead reptile brain throwback lefthandasswipe savages killing innocent people.
Leave him alone and he will come down. One way or another.
I’d go with a taser. Why harm the tree?
“questioned the man’s mental health.......”
I think k we can rule out acrophobia.
Smart people won’t stand below him.
Napalm.
Sounds like your typical Seattle hippie.
BERKELEY, Calif. (KCBS) — One woman was arrested Tuesday as authorities removed some of the structures that have housed tree sitting protesters in an oak grove UC Berkeley wants to cut down to make way for a $125 million athletic facility.
The protester was taken into custody after she reportedly bit one of the workers removing her supplies, according to police. Officers cordoned off part of Piedmont Avenue near Memorial Grove and brought in arborists to remove the platforms and gear the tree sitters have used to maintain their perches since December 2006. A university official had earlier said the tree sitters themselves would not be removed yet.
“One of the things we’re most concerned about is safety and security, of our police officers and the people in the trees. That’s the reason we’re not forcibly removing people from the trees today,” said Dan Mogulof, a spokesman for UC Berkeley.
Tuesday was not the first time the university has removed scaffolding built by the protesters, but removing the people has proven more difficult. One witness told KCBS reporter Tim Ryan at the scene that some of the tree sitters threw urine they had collected in buckets at the police and arborists to discourage them from climbing.
I see what you mean. He will.come down somehow. Hopefully not from passing out from lack if food and water but he can’t stay forever. Just cordon off the site and ignore him. Something’s got to give.
No, they won't. Tree Sitters in Berkeley liked to cavort naked in the tree, and throw feces and urine at anyone they saw fit.
Sort of like chimpanzees ...
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