Man Commits Suicide by Jumping off of the Fwy-14 Overpass

Local police tried to talk the would-be jumper down from the Freeway 14 overpass for 3 hours earlier today. The unidentified man arrived at the Santa Clarita interchange shortly after 11am and began pacing around as if he was going to jump. Traffic was held up for hours as authorities tried to reason with him. He eventually jumped after 3 hours of discussion (at 2pm) and died.

One witness that LAist spoke to witnessed a middle-aged man wearing jeans and a T-shirt with a water bottle in hand pacing around the ledge of the freeway:

"Firefighters were sitting on the ledge talking to the man as numerous gawkers pulled over and got out their cameras in the hopes of witnessing a fatality. I can only regretfully say that those jerks were only adding to the problem -- having an audience probably motivated him to jump even more."

Photo by Pete and Genevieve via Flickr.