A man climbs the outside of Trump Tower in NY, U.S., August 10, 2016. The 58-story building is headquarters to the Republican presidential nominee’s campaign. He also lives there.
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The New York Police Department has identified the man who scaled the glass facade of the Trump Tower using large suction cups.
Trump was not in the building at the time, but later tweeted: “Great job today by the NYPD in protecting the people and saving the climber”.
According to a police report in Fairfax County, Virginia, the climber’s parents reported him missing in November 2014 after he ran away from home – with plans to live on the streets of Miami – before he agreed to return the next day.
A shaggy-haired man was scaling Trump Tower in New York Wednesday using suction cups and prompting a police response outside the Manhattan headquarters of the Republican nominee for USA president.
Stephen Rogata’s climb Wednesday drew a live audience of hundreds in Midtown Manhattan and millions on TV and social media before it ended abruptly when police removed a window and wrestled him into the building.
It wasn’t immediately clear if he had an attorney. When he got close, they quickly grabbed him and hauled him over the window ledge into their custody.
The climber wore a backpack and used a harness and rope stirrups to fasten himself to the side of the 68-story Manhattan skyscraper Wednesday.
Chief Vincent Giordano, commander of NYPD emergency services, said authorities took the first calls about the man at about 3:30 p.m. and thought they were responding to a case of a jumper.
According to the New York Post, the climber posted a one-minute video on YouTube under the name Leven Thump, a name from a children’s fantasy book series, explaining why he climbed Trump Tower. “I guarantee that it’s in your interest to honor this request”, he said. “I hope there’s something more political behind [it]”.
Officers threw a blue towel out of a window at another point in an apparent attempt to coax him in.
“At no time did he express that he wanted to hurt anybody”, he said. He was several stories up and still climbing Wednesday evening.
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“This man performed a ridiculous and unsafe stunt”, Cohen said. Detective Christopher Williams, standing at one of the windows opened by police, said when Rogata dismissed the warning he waited for the opportune moment to pull the teen into the building.
