Police negotiator stops a man from attempting suicide in Gran Canaria

A negotiator from the National Police managed to stop a man from trying to commit suicide by jumping from a tower block in Las Palmas in Gran Canaria yesterday afternoon. The incident lasted almost five hours until shortly after 5pm he decided to give up his intention to jump and surrender to the police.

Police were called just before 11am yesterday morning and were informed that the man had barricaded himself in his apartment with his sister inside, located by the Don Benito Park in the Schamann neighbourhood of Las Palmas, and was threatening to jump from the fourth floor.

Agents from the UIP (Police Intervention Unit) were dispatched to the scene to try to access the apartment, however, because his sister was inside, who he didn’t harm, and because he was threatening to jump, the police called in a negotiator to speak to the man instead.

The Police report shows that the negotiator arrived at 12:30pm and stayed until 5:10pm, taking more than four and a half hours to get the man to change his mind and turn himself in without carrying out the threat.

The man, who’s details have been kept private, allegedly suffers from mental health disorders and was transferred to the Doctor Negrín Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and routine observation.