Stephen Rogata, the 19-year-old who scaled Trump Tower on Wednesday, is facing charges of reckless endangerment and trespassing, The New York Times reports. The world watched for three hours as Steve made it to about the 21st floor with his suction cups before police detained him. He had been undergoing a psychological evaluation at Bellevue Hospital, but it’s unclear if he remained there Thursday morning.
Advertisement
In a video uploaded to YouTube a day earlier, Rogata, who lives in Great Falls, Virginia, addressed Trump, saying he was an “independent researcher” who needed a private audience with the billionaire to discuss an unspecified important matter.
So, to get the attention of the most infamous man in the United States right now, Steve chose to climb the side of Trump Tower.
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.
NYPD Chief Of Manhattan Detectives William Aubry told the NY Times the climber “told them he sought to scale the tower with one goal: to gain a personal meeting with Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee”. 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.
As a crowd gasped on the street below, two officers leaned far out of a window frame where the glass was removed, grabbed the climber’s arm and backpack, and in a flash yanked him from his dangling stirrups.
“Believe me, if my goal was not significant I would not risk my life pursuing it”, Rogata said. The reason I climbed your tower is to get your attention. “If I had sought this via conventional means, I would be much less likely to have success because you are a busy man with many responsibilities”. “I’m 100 percent certain the NYPD had better things to do”.
Trump commented on the incident in a tweet.
Advertisement
Members of the public are free to roam inside its public atrium until 10 pm most days as part of an agreement that allowed Trump to build 20 stories higher.
