Santa Barbara police prevented a 53-year-old homeless man from taking his own life Sunday evening, April 4, when they were able to grab him off the ledge on the top floor of a city parking structure.
Police responded to a call just after 5 p.m. of a man with his leg over the railing at the northwest corner of the parking structure at 1100 Anacapa St., near the library. While some officers talked to him from below, another officer climbed the stairs to the top floor, and, with the man unsuspecting, grabbed him and brought him off the railing. The man was intoxicated, and told authorities he was depressed and that if he had a gun he would’ve shot himself. Police booked him, on a charge of public intoxication, into County Jail, where he was to undergo a psychiatric evaluation and be put on suicide watch.