Cop rappels down skyscraper to arrest FBI fugitive threatening to jump
New Yorkers looked on in horror on Wednesday morning when a man perched outside a shattered window of a Midtown high rise apartment building threatened to jump.
NYPD officers rushed to the scene around 8.30am on Wednesday when onlookers reported a man hanging out of the window from 31st floor of CitySpire, a 72-story high rise on 56th Street.
The man was identified as Ian Mitchell, 35, and he was being served a warrant by FBI agents. He was wanted by the agency on white collar crime-related charges.
‘They responded there and they found the male in crisis,’ NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said. ‘He was wanted there by another agency, and instead of going peacefully with that agency he thought of taking his own life.’
The standoff lasted about eight hours on Wednesday as negotiators tried to coax the man down from the ledge.
Just before 5.00pm, the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit made the decision to rescue the man. A squad of officers entered the apartment, while another officer rappelled down from the 32nd floor.
The officer who rappelled down was later identified as Detective James Tobin. After Tobin blocked the window frame, another officer inside the apartment grabbed Mitchell back into the building.
The entire encounter only lasted about one minute. Video footage was later posted by NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell.
‘You all saw the video and witnessed the tremendous bravery of Detective Tobin climbing out of the 32nd floor window in Midtown Manhattan to push this male back into the window to allow the rest of the team to grab him and bring him to safety’ Chief Maddrey said at a press conference later that evening. ‘What they did today was beyond brave. All New Yorkers should applaud their bravery.’
Mitchell was then escorted to an ambulance and transported to Bellevue Hospital, where he will undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
It is not clear exactly what the FBI was investigating Mitchell for. However, he previously faced charges in 2019 for allegedly posing as an investment banker to con investors out of over $100,000, according to the New York Post.
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