More details are coming to light about the man arrested by police Tuesday morning after he spent more than 24 hours atop a construction crane in West Dallas, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The still-unidentified man was found atop the crane boom, approximately 150 feet in the air, Monday morning. He refused to come down voluntarily.
Both Dallas police and Dallas Fire-Rescue responded to the incident that blocked off traffic from every direction on Singleton Boulevard.
Dallas SWAT attempted to persuade the man to come down from the crane, but the man refused, police said. Negotiations continued for the rest of the day and throughout much of the night.
However, officers had to pause negotiations due to weather conditions, police said in the release.
Finally, at around 7:45 a.m. on Tuesday, SWAT officers made their way to the cab of the crane where the man had taken shelter from the rain and took him into custody.
Dallas SWAT and Dallas Fire-Rescue were able to get the man safely to the ground. He was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment and mental evaluation.
The man had an allegedly self-inflicted cut to his abdomen and was potentially suicidal, according to a police department news release. He did not sustain any life-threatening injuries.
Police said that the man has not been charged criminally at this time, but charges could be forthcoming.
Mental health issues are a pressing public health problem in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Dawn Rachel Floran, the owner of Lake Ray Hubbard Counseling in Rockwall, Texas, counsels patients suffering from mental health issues. Though she has not personally treated the man involved in the incident, she told The Dallas Express she believes he could be suffering from a mental health-related issue.
“I think it’s definitely a cry for help because for somebody to go to that extent to do something so painful — that just tells you about their emotional pain,” Floran told The Dallas Express.
“I think we need to make more of an effort to advertise available mental health resources. I don’t think that we do that enough. There is a mental health hotline, and I think we really need to get that out there. As well as, you know, 911, we should know that mental hotline number by heart,” said Floran.
The number Floran was referencing is the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, which connects callers with a trained crisis counselor. The service is free and confidential and is available 24/7/365, according to the CDC.
