Local authorities talk him off the Palisades Bluffs
By Daily Press staff
A homeless man was talked off the Palisades Bluffs Thursday after threatening to commit suicide by jumping onto the Pacific Coast Highway below.
Friends identified the man as “J.R.” and said he has been living in Santa Monica for more than a year. He recently began a three-month drug binge, regularly shooting up the methamphetamine called ‘crank,’ friends said.
The northbound lanes on the Pacific Coast Highway were closed off, which caused traffic throughout Santa Monica to be backed up. Police officers diverted cars off of I-10 at the Fourth Street exit and directed them through Santa Monica Canyon. Some motorists reported that traffic was backed all the way to Crenshaw Boulevard and delays lasted up to 45 minutes.
Dozens of police officers responded to the scene. Fire trucks, ambulances and police cars were stationed around the area, just north of Wilshire Boulevard. Lifeguards and more police were stationed below the bluffs on the PCH.
Authorities spent the afternoon trying to talk J.R. off the cliff, eventually succeeding and taking him to a mental hospital where he was to undergo a 72-hour evaluation.
A shirtless J.R. appeared angry and distraught as officers tried to reason with him. Though he spent much of the time sitting down and looking over the edge of the bluffs, on several occasions he stoop up and shouted, waved his arms and hurled rocks toward the officers.
Terry Marcellino, a 20-year resident of Second Street, said she had seen J.R. before.
“He needs his meds,” the graphic artist said. “He’s schizophrenic... he’s definitely got issues. He’s a loud talker in the middle of the night.”
John Ellis, a homeless man from South Carolina who moved to Santa Monica in 1998, said J.R. had been acting crazy since he started shooting up regularly.
“It’s amazing he made it this long before somebody took him in,” Ellis said.
Some onlookers were bothered by the measured response of authorities.
“This is Santa Monica — the land of the liberal,” said George Lander, a screenwriter who lives in Torrance. “Back in the big city, in New York or Chicago, they wouldn’t have put up with this for five minutes.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 10, 2003. Read the original PDF.