SAN FRANCISCO—The San Francisco Police Department Crisis – Hostage Negation Team (CHNT) helped rescue a man from the edge of the Bay Bridge after he threatened to kill himself. According to a press release from the SFPD, on Wednesday, September 7 at approximately 10:44 p.m. officers from the SFPD Southern Station responded to the region of Main Street and Howard after receiving reports of an assault.
Upon arrival, the parties involved in the incident had already dispersed from the scene. After speaking and interviewing witnesses and bystanders on the scene, they gathered a description of both the adult female and adult male. A witness informed officers that during a verbal argument, the male suspect struck the female victim. Several bystanders and the witness helped pull the suspect off the victim, before she boarded a Muni bus and the suspect fled southbound on Main Street.
Officers were able to track the victim on a Muni bus at Mission and Fremont Street where she was interviewed and the spotted a bite mark on her arm and requested an ambulance. The victim was identified as a 21 year-old San Francisco resident, her name has not yet been disclosed to the public. She did inform officers that the suspect is a 21 year-old, San Francisco resident who was her acquaintance. The victim was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
A dispatcher from the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management (DEM) alerted SFPD officers of a man matching the description of the suspect who was seen walking eastbound on the lower deck of the Bay Bridge. The California Highway Patrol requested help from the SFPD who arrived on the scene and discovered the suspect resisted arrest and climbed over the railing of the bridge onto a catwalk. The suspect climbed onto the catwalk, held a knife to his neck and stated that he wanted to die.
The SFPD Crisis – Hostage Negation Team (CHNT) was called to the scene, and after hours of negotiation were able to convince the suspect to surrender at 5:26 a.m. and taken to a local hospital to be evaluated. After being discharged from the hospital, the suspect was booked at the San Francisco County Jail for aggravated assault and false imprisonment. T
he latest incident is the 64th call from the SFPD Crisis Hostage Negotiation Team in 2016. The team consists of 38 members who are assigned to various units within the Police Department, and responded to 50 calls in 2015.
