POSTED 5:59 PM, AUGUST 16, 2017, BY CINDY VON QUEDNOW AND MARY BETH MCDADE, UPDATED AT 10:53PM, AUGUST 16, 2017
Hours after a man climbed onto a crane at the Port of Los Angeles following a reckless pursuit with police, fell to his death, officials confirmed Wednesday night.
The man fell about 9:20 p.m. Police and fire personnel surrounded the man and eventually put a sheet over him, the video showed.
A man who apparently led police on three pursuits on Aug. 16, 2017, climbed a crane at the Port of Los Angeles. (Credit: KTLA)
The man, who drove in and out of lanes at the port in a stolen SUV, was acting bizarrely while atop the crane tower, at times doing handstands and crunches while continuing to evade police.
The white 2018 Subaru the man was in has paper plates and had a tracking device that authorities used to find it.
About 3:10 p.m., LAPD received a call about a vehicle being stolen out of San Bernardino, Officer Tony Im told KTLA.
Officials were in pursuit of the vehicle earlier, but lost it on the freeway. Torrance police officials later picked it up, but called off the pursuit and the SUV was then chased by Long Beach police, Im said.
A man who climbed a crane at the Port of L.A. had been involved in two previous pursuits on Aug. 16, 2017. (Credit: KTLA)
After driving erratically through lanes at the port, the man got out of the SUV and began climbing a crane tower at the West Basin Container Terminal, sometimes backwards. The man then broke a window and climbed into a hole in the crane then continued walking around, in an effort to avoid police.
At times the man sat on the crane and appeared to stretch, do crunches, handstands and dangled his feet over the ledge of the crane, aerial video from Sky 5 showed. He eventually took off his shoes, shirt, pants and appeared to be naked by nightfall. Police, meanwhile, surrounded the area in an effort to convince him to turn himself in.
Patrick Bates, a crane operator who works for yard, told KTLA that the man was on the highest crane in the whole harbor before he fell.
Los Angeles Fire Department officials said in an alert that the man fell about 160 feet from a crane at Berth 100 at the port and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Los Angeles Fire Department officials said in an alert that the man fell about 160 feet from a crane at Berth 100 at the port and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Bates said he was leaving work when he passed the man who was involved in the pursuit.
“I knew something bad was happening,” Bates said.
"It was unbelievable, the height of that, it takes your breath away, I don’t care how long you’ve been doing it," he said referring to the crane. "He was up there doing things that I just could not believe."
KTLA's Nidia Becerra and Matt Phillips contributed to this story.
KTLA's Nidia Becerra and Matt Phillips contributed to this story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsb3oistZ2U
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