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Another person climbs onto a crane in Buckhead
By SAEED AHMED
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/30/05
Days after a murder suspect was apprehended after spending 56 hours atop a crane, another man climbed half-way up another crane elsewhere in Buckhead Monday night.
The unidentified man, wearing a black and white striped Polo shirt, was pacing on a platform about half-way up the crane's height, about 110 feet from the ground, at 11 p.m.. A dozen firefighters waited at the scene on Peachtree Road, at a construction site about a block north of Piedmont Road, while Atlanta police tried to figure out how to bring the man down.
Jocelyn Broder, 23, was at home about a block away when she heard a scream and then police sirens. She came outside to see what the commotion was about.
"I said to myself, it'd better not be a crane jumper," Broder said. "And sure enough, there he was."
Police received a call about the crane climber at 9:30 p.m. They did not immediately close off the busy area, a few blocks from Lenox Square mall, as they did in the previous crane incident last week. Police did not know late Monday night whether the second crane climber was a copycat or what else might have prompted him to climb up the crane on a drizzly Memorial Day night.
"Hopefully, he is drunk and will realize, 'What am I doing up here?'," said Atlanta police Sgt. John Quigley, a department spokesman. "Or maybe the rain will give him a good dousing and he'll come down on his own."
Across the street, a group of about 30 teens from Belle Glade, Fla., who were staying at the Embassy Suites across the street stood on the sidewalk shouting, "Jump!"
Tim Hobbs, 18, planned on watching the developments, or lack thereof, all night. "The cool thing is, my room faces the street," Hobbs said. "Even when I'm in bed, I get a good view."
The scene is about two miles from the site of the previous crane standoff, in which Carl Edward Roland refused food, water and surrender for more than two days while he was atop the 350-foot-tall crane. He finally was captured shortly after midnight Saturday when he crawled toward a police officer to accept a drink of water and was stunned with a Taser gun.
Roland officially was charged Monday with criminal trespass and damage to property. Fulton County Magistrate Court Judge Mike Wallace also denied bond for Roland, whose standoff closed Peachtree Road and crippled Buckhead businesses for two days.
Roland, 41, of Clearwater, Fla., faces a murder charge in Florida in the beating death of his former girlfriend. Authorities allege that Roland strangled Jennifer Gonzalez, 36, whose body was discovered last week in a retention pond near her home in Oldsmar, Fla.
Roland made his way to Atlanta and on Wednesday forced his way onto the crane, causing the closing of two long blocks of Buckhead's premier real estate.
Roland's hearing on extradition to Florida was expected to be held this morning in Fulton Superior Court.
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-- good stuff! I'll be in Suwanee for two days next week and will try out Fillini's)
