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June 4, 2007
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.
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This is sad. Although blaming onlookers for this is nuts. That's like blaming Marilyn Manson for school shootings. If dude was upset enough to get up there and jump, that's 100% his doing. If he was 'motivated' by onlookers, that's still his choice.
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Whoa... I drove right past that guy this morning at about 11:10am on my way up for an oil change/smog inspection. The guy was stopped on the interchange that heads from the 5 going southbound to the 14.
As I was going northbound, I saw a stopped car and then some guy sitting on the ledge. I didn't think TOO much of it except how weird it would be if he was trying to commit suicide or if he jumped while I was driving by. So I sat there for a few seconds just getting a glimpse as I quickly sped up the interstate.
Traffic was almost back to normal to moderate on my way back around 3pm this afternoon. So I didn't think anything of it again until I read this.
How tragic.
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I saw the guy on the ledge of the freeway overpass contemplating to jump around 1:45pm coming back from the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health Conference in Valencia. I was praying for this guy in jeans and white t-shirt not to jump. May God have mercy on his soul.
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there was another suicide on the freeway awhile back. a man pulls to the side of the barrier and shoots himself in the head with a shotgun. does anyone know anything who the man was?
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Are you thinking of Daniel Jones? It raised a number of wthical questions about live coverage in the media
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE0D7103EF931A35756C0A96E958260&sec=health