A man perched 31 floors above the sidewalk with his legs dangling off the side caught the attention of onlookers. Erica Byfield reports.
An hours-long standoff unfolded at a luxury Manhattan high-rise by Carnegie Hall -- one that briefly saw a man hang part of his body outside a 31st-floor apartment as stunned onlookers gawked from below, according to senior law enforcement officials and witnesses at the scene.
The situation began to develop at CitySpire, a 72-story condo tower at 150 West 56th St., before 9 a.m. Wednesday. It would be eight hours before it was finally resolved in the evening after an NYPD officer repelled down the building and grabbed the man, pulling him inside.
"They didn’t know what that man was thinking but ESU made a decision that nothing was going to happen to that man today. And they kept their word," said NYPD Chief Joseph Maddrey.
Three senior law enforcement officials said the FBI was executing a warrant for the arrest of a 35-year-old man on bank fraud-related charges. As federal agents went to serve the warrant, the man inside broke one of the apartment's windows, the officials said, and threatened to jump from more than 30 stories above the ground.
Within minutes, the NYPD's hostage negotiations team got called in to work with the feds. Crews on the ground meanwhile inflated a huge yellow and white airbag, so big that it filled the street. Sources told NBC New York that it has the capability to absorb a fall from 100 feet — but the man appeared to be much higher off the ground than that on Wednesday.
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For hours, those watching from below — including Mayor Eric Adams — could see the man's legs dangling as he sat perched on the sill of a shattered window. Others who work in nearby hi-rises could see the terrifying sight from their offices.
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"In my mind I was like, please don't jump," said Dominick Lagonigro, who got to work in the building across the street about 90 minutes before it all started. "He was just turning his head back and forth. Moving. Both his legs were hanging out. So it looked like he wanted to jump."
The heart-pounding drama led police to immediately block off 56th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues. At times, the man wrapped himself in a white blanket or sheets; at other points, it flapped in the wind, adding to the drama and concern.
An NYPD officer repelled down the skyscraper around 5 p.m. to grab the man and finally end the scary FBI standoff. ESU detective James Tobin was the one seen going down the side of the building, and said he and his team have done this very thing many times in the past, training for it every day.
"I was able to guide him into the window where my teammates were able to take him into custody," said Tobin.
After Tobin kicked through the window, police were able to take that man into custody and brought him down to an ambulance below — alive and facing charges.
The apartment the man is seen hanging out of Wednesday does not belong to him, officials said, but the building stated that he was staying there as a resident's guest. It's not clear whose apartment the man was inside, or who he is.
The building's Board of Managers said in an email to residents that guns were involved in the fray. People were asked to use different entry points for a time earlier in the day.
