Man Climbs TV Station's Tower, Refuses to Come Down After 48 Hours and Counting

Almost two days ago, a 25-year-old man identified as William Sturdivant II climbed the broadcast tower for a local Tulsa, Okla. TV station -- and he's still there. According to police, shortly after 11am Thursday, employees at FOX23 noticed William -- who has a history of mental illness and is known to walk the 400-plus miles from Tulsa to Dallas, Texas -- trespassing on the property. When they gave chase, he ran to roof run and climbed the broadcast tower where he has been all this time without food or water. More than 25 police units and fire trucks have been on the scene and sometime yesterday police sent him a cell phone. He told them he had "to work some things out" and could remain perched on the tower "for a week if he wanted." On Thursday, cops fired pepper spray balls at him to encourage him to come down, but he just climbed further up the 300-foot tower. Since then they've made several other attempts to coach him down, but Williams remains on the tower. Last month, he stood on a bridge in Missouri for hours. Maybe he's a performance artist. Grab some popcorn and hope for the best because we hear there's a storm moving in. (Update: Three bouts of severe weather -- including rain and lightning -- have passed while he's on the tower.)



Here's William's mug shot from a previous arrest.




Update, Aug. 15: After four days, William is still on the tower and he continues to order police to fetch him food from various restaurants and cops gladly oblige because you know William's family is looking for a reason to sue the city for millions. Speaking of which, friends and family don;t confirm whether William is crazy or not. They say he's on the tower because he has another baby on the way and his mother was recently diagnosed with cancer. What?




Update, Aug 16: Yep, he's still up there! The stand-off is entering its sixth day! Wait, a sec. At about 6:40pm today -- more than 125 hours on the tower -- William surrendered to police. He was loaded onto an ambulance and taken to the hospital. He still faces trespassing charges.




source:Newson6