NEW YORK (AP) — A man seeking “a private audience” with Donald Trump spent three hours scaling the glass facade of Trump Tower using large suction cups before officers hauled him to safety through an open window.
The climber wore a backpack and used a harness and rope stirrups to fasten himself to the side of the 68-story Manhattan skyscraper Wednesday. He climbed as high as the 21st floor before officers grabbed him.
The New York Police Department on Thursday identified the climber as 19-year-old Stephen Rogata, of Great Falls, Virginia. He was arrested on charges of reckless endangerment and criminal trespass. Police previously said he was 20.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Rogata has an attorney who could comment on his behalf. He was being evaluated at a hospital.
The tower is headquarters to Trump’s Republican presidential campaign and his business empire. Trump also lives there, though he was in Virginia in the afternoon and was headed to Florida for an evening event.
Rogata played a slow-motion cat-and-mouse game with his would-be rescuers as he climbed Trump Tower. Officers smashed windows and broke through ventilation ducts to block his progress. Police also lowered themselves toward him using a window washer’s platform.
Rogata kept his distance by methodically working his way back-and-forth across the facade, repeatedly repositioning suction cups resembling a type commonly used by window washers to remove big panes of glass.
The chase ended dramatically just after 6:30 p.m.
As a crowd gasped on the street below, two officers leaned far out of a window, grabbed the climber’s arm and harness, and in a flash yanked him from his dangling stirrups. He went through the opening head first, his legs pointed skyward.
“I reached out. I took hold of his hand, and I said, ‘Sir, would you come with me?'” said Christopher Williams, the detective who made the grab.
Police had deployed large inflated crash pads at the scene, but it was unclear how much protection they would have offered if the climber fell.
A day before the ascent, police said, the climber posted a video on YouTube titled, “Message to Mr. Trump (why I climbed your tower).” He posted the video under the name Leven Thumps, which is a character in a series of children’s fantasy novels by the writer Obert Skye.
“I am an independent researcher seeking a private audience with you to discuss an important matter. I guarantee that it’s in your interest to honor this request,” he said. “Believe me, if my purpose was not significant, I would not risk my life pursuing it. The reason I climbed your tower is to get your attention. If I had sought this via conventional means, I would be much less likely to have success because you are a busy man with many responsibilities.”
NYPD Assistant Chief William Aubrey said Rogata told officers the same thing once he was safely inside the building.
“At no time did he express that he wanted to hurt anybody,” he said.
Officials at Trump Tower said the climber had wasted police resources.
“This man performed a ridiculous and dangerous stunt,” Michael Cohen, an executive at the Trump Organization, said in an emailed statement. “I’m 100 percent certain the NYPD had better things to do.”
Later Wednesday evening, Trump tweeted: “Great job today by the NYPD in protecting the people and saving the climber.”
The climber began his ascent from a terrace that is open to the public during the day.
