An unidentified man caused havoc in midtown Manhattan today when he attempted to climb up the side of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, resulting in news reports breaking in to pre-empt nightly news broadcasts to chronicle the man’s attempt and subsequent apprehension by police.
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Stephen Rogata scales the glass facade of Trump Tower in NY before his arrest Wednesday.
Officers recovered a spiral notebook with multiple handwritten notes referring to a YouTube video titled “Message to Mr. Trump (Why I Climbed Your Tower)”, the police said.
“His entire life focus is on that blog”, his mother, Gina Ryan, told police, according to the report. “They are the best parents I have ever seen”.
While police may know the Trump Tower climber as Rogata, they said he had recently changed his name, and residents in his Great Falls neighborhood actually have known him as Michael Ryan.
Family friend Carolyn Garofalo said he was over for dinner last week.
“I’m pumped up and ready for tomorrow”, Oleksiak said of going for her fourth medal. NY police arrested him after he reached the 21st floor.
Rogata was charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, a felony, and criminal trespass, but his arraignment was on hold pending a psychiatric evaluation at Bellevue Hospital. The reason I climbed your tower is to get your attention.
“This man performed a ridiculous and risky stunt”, Michael Cohen, an executive at the Trump Organization, said in an emailed statement.
He told the NYPD he was climbing the building owned by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to get an audience with him.
Police were treating the tower climb as a potentially unsafe stunt, saying there was no indication Rogata wanted to hurt anyone.
A naked man yelling, “Donald Trump, where are you?”, climbed to the top of the red TKTS stairs in Times Square Thursday morning, then fell to the ground in an attempt to escape police, photos and video posted to social media showed.
“They are fine people”, said another neighbor. Trump also lives there, though he was in Virginia in the afternoon and was headed to Florida for an evening event.
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In a tweet late Wednesday, the Republican nominee praised the “great job” done by police in “protecting the people and saving the climber”.
