Man Rescued After Three Hours In Tree

August 13, 2015

A man was rescued from a tree this afternoon almost three hours after he climbed it and refused to come down.

Pensacola police officer Greg Gordon said the man was initially loitering around Five Sisters Blues Café, on Belmont Street. Gordon said employees called police because they were concerned for the man’s safety after he began climbing a nearby tree around 10:45 a.m.

The 32-year-old man, whose name is not being released, climbed about 25 to 30 feet up into the tree. Sgt. Jimmy Donohoe, who is a crisis negotiator, talked with the man for about one and a half hours trying to convince him to come down.

However, the man remained in the tree until about 1:30 p.m. when he became tired and agreed to allow SWAT officers, who were in training and responded to the scene, to rescue him using a bucket on a fire department truck, said Capt. Chuck Mallett.

As SWAT officers got close to him, the man changed his mind and said he’d climb down. But when it looked as though he might fall, the officers grabbed him to prevent him from falling and brought him down in the bucket, Mallett said.

No criminal charges will be filed on the man, who was taken to a medical facility for  evaluation.

Comments

3 Responses to “Man Rescued After Three Hours In Tree”

  1. Andrew Chase on August 18th, 2015 5:03 am

    Maybe he was looking for his imaginary cat?

  2. David Huie Green on August 14th, 2015 12:25 pm

    I don’t see where there was a problem.

    David for tree houses

  3. Bob C. on August 13th, 2015 9:53 pm

    My Grandmother, raised up in the north end of the county in the late 1800″s, had a ton of “sayings” which she used for different situations.
    One of the more used ones when she was frustrated or too many family members were around trying to “Help” was, “If y’all don’t leave me alone I’m going to go to the country and climb a tree”.
    We knew then that it was time to let her be.
    Maybe this guy had had all he could take and the tree seemed a good refuge.
    Granny, Thank You for all the great and funny memories, RIP.