Seattle man spends day in giant tree
Live feed of climber, by turns funny and frightening, becomes national spectacle
SEATTLE— Equipped with snacks and warm clothing, an agitated man climbed a 24-metre sequoia tree in downtown Seattle and defied efforts to bring him down for more than 24 hours before finally descending Wednesday.
The episode became a local and national spectacle, thanks in part to a live video feed by KOMO, a local news station. A crowd cheered as the unidentified man finally returned to the ground about 11:45 a.m. local time, and ate food that had been left for him before he was loaded onto a gurney and into an ambulance.
The video feed, narrated by a bantering newscaster, was at times a lighthearted affair, but it was also laced with the tension of knowing that the man was in serious danger.
He had dangled precipitously from near the top of the tree in something like a makeshift nest since about 11 a.m. Tuesday, and the police cautioned that he could pose a threat to himself and others.
“We want to make sure he’s OK and that he can get down from the tree without hurting himself or someone else,” a police spokesman, Patrick Michaud, told The Seattle Times. “We’re on his schedule — we’re not going to rush it with someone at the top of a tall tree. If you rush it, it could become dangerous.”
Authorities said they were unsure what motivated the climber.
“Issue appears to be between the man and the tree,” the police tweeted Tuesday.
Seattle residents were surprised, and in many cases delighted, to wake up Wednesday morning and discover the man was still perched near the top of the tree. The man, wearing a long beard and dishevelled clothes, had rebuffed attempts by negotiators to communicate, yelling and pelting an apple, branches and pine cones at officers on the street. He claimed he had a knife, the police said.
“Due to his violent behaviour and threats, and the man’s precarious position high above the ground, police are taking extreme caution to ensure the safety of everyone involved,” police said in a statement.
He had snapped off most of the branches at the top of the tree, which was transplanted in 1973 near a Macy’s store at Fourth Ave. and Stewart St. Officials fought to save the tree in 2010, when experts questioned whether it could survive in its city environment. On Twitter, the #ManInTree attracted widespread support, with some concern mixed in.
The KOMO video stream was fixed on the scene atop the tree, but also captured the spectacle nearby, including an “interview” with a goat. Theron Zahn, a KOMO broadcaster working the early morning shift Wednesday, passed the time with praise for hard-working trash collectors, ruminations on the value of coffee and jokes about the likelihood of rain in Seattle.
“Is there a metaphor in all of this?” Zahn pondered. “Like, the rest of us, in our own way, would like to climb a tree and be left alone? That’s what I think.
“Maybe all of us, in our own lives, with the stress of the world and everything, you just want to go up in a tree and hang out with the birds, and not be bothered.
“But that’s probably overthinking it.”