Photo: Dallas Police Department
The Texas man who spent over 24 hours atop a construction crane in Dallas is now facing charges after the incident.
Paul Jamison was taken to the Dallas County Jail on Tuesday (February 14) after spending the entire day before that on top of a 150-foot construction crane on Singleton Boulevard, FOX 4 reports. Jamison caused about $20,000 in damages and inconvenience to the cab of the crane, which will need to be repaired, swapped, cleaned and inspected by the construction company. Furthermore, the 49-year-old man is being held on $10,000 bond on top of the felony charge of criminal mischief.
It all went down Monday (February 13) and overnight into Tuesday in the 1000 block of Singleton Boulevard in Dallas, WFAA reports. Local police, the fire department and SWAT responded to the scene around 8 am. Monday for reports of a man who had climbed to the top of the crane at the construction site. He stayed atop the crane through Monday and declined to come down, despite authorities' efforts to rescue him. Crews also managed to get him water and food while he was up there.
While he was atop the crane, the man reportedly walked across it and even climbed to the top of the railing. He remained there through Tuesday morning, despite a storm moving into the area which brought heavy rain and high winds. Thankfully, the weather wasn't severe and there were no reports of lightning.
It still remains unclear why the man made his way to the top of the crane, but police said the man was "potentially suicidal," the news outlet reports. He had a self-inflicted cut to his stomach, but not a life-threatening injury.
The man was safely brought back down Tuesday morning and taken into custody after being evaluated at a local hospital. Officers and fire rescue crews were able to get the man down using a harness device since he became more cooperative overnight "as the circumstances began to take their toll on him," officials said. His condition "began to deteriorate" and firefighters were able to bring him down. "Wind gusts were causing the boom of the crane to swing, so crews needed additional help from an operator before taking the man down," WFAA reports.