Man who threatened to jump off Office Depot roof talked down safely, taken into custody

Cars are seen in the parking lot Wednesday at the Eastgate Town Center.
Cars are seen in the parking lot Wednesday at the Eastgate Town Center.

UPDATE: A man who kept police officers at bay for several hours Thursday afternoon as he threatened to jump from the roof of an Office Depot store on Brainerd Road has been taken into custody, according to Chattanooga police.

The man, whose identity has not yet been released, has been charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing, Chattanooga police department spokeswoman Elisa Myzal said.

The police department's hostage negotiation team spent several hours talking to the man, trying to prevent him from jumping, before taking him into custody.

The parking lot at the Office Depot store, in the 5600 block of Brainerd Road, was closed during the standoff, but otherwise traffic in the area was not affected, Myzal said.

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Hostage negotiators are on the scene at a building on Brainerd Road where a man is threatening to jump from the roof of the building, according to a spokeswoman for the Chattanooga Police Department.

Officials did not have a specific address for the building but said it was near the Applebee's restaurant, which is in the 5600 block of Brainerd Road near the Eastgate Mall.

Traffic has not been diverted from the area, officials said, and the man's family has been notified and is heading to the scene.

The call came in at 12:37 p.m. according to the Hamilton County 911 website.

In a news release, suicide prevention officials said they were hoping for the man's imminent rescue as well as the safety of the officers involved in the situation, and directed those considering suicide to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

"According to the Tennessee Department of Health, there were 1,065 deaths by suicide in our state in 2015," said Scott Ridgway, executive director of the Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network. "The public needs to be aware of the warning signs of suicide and how they can intervene to prevent suicide."

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