In the pouring rain last Thursday, with lightning and thunder cracking around him, the person who would become known as "tower man" began the longest standoff in Tulsa Police Department history.
For almost 128 hours, William Boyd Sturdivant II held the city's attention and police at bay as they tried around the clock to persuade him to come down without hurting himself or others.
"He was a very persistent person, and we had to be more persistent," said Capt. Ryan Perkins, commander of the police Special Operations Team, which was at the scene throughout the standoff.
"Despite the fact it lasted so long, he's safe; he's getting medical attention, and (we're) getting him to a mental health evaluation. That's what we wanted."
Michael Brose, executive director of the Mental Health Association in Tulsa, praised the police response.
"I thought overall they did a good job. ... Ultimately it's about the final outcome, and they obviously were unbelievably patient, and it had to be unbelievably stressful for them."
Brose said people with mental illness "live and work around us every day, and they ... go about their lives."
It's those without medication and treatment -- an increasing number due to budget cuts -- who can create an issue for law enforcement, he said.
In recent years, authorities in Tulsa have educated themselves on mental illness, Brose said.
"Where we used to have a lot more people charged and taken to the jail, we see now much more efficient, more effective use of the crisis center. With that said, we have a shortage of crisis beds in our community," he added.
Breakthrough
What eventually broke through to Sturdivant on Tuesday were the efforts of retired Tulsa police negotiator Tyrone Lynn, who spent eight hours in a Tulsa Fire Department ladder bucket talking to him, establishing a rapport and eventually persuading him to get help.
From the moment officers responded about 11 a.m. Thursday, officials knew this would be an extraordinary event.
"When we have somebody at great height like that, our team has no tactical options," Police Chief Chuck Jordan said. "You can't do all the things you normally do when you have somebody on the ground."
Officers knew Sturdivant was isolated more than 150 feet up the 300-foot tower and had a weapon -- a knife he held in the early hours of the standoff, Perkins said. Sturdivant also had access to the Clear Channel Communications building at 27th Street and Memorial Drive and its roof.
"When he was moving up and down all over the tower, we constantly had to be concerned about his ability to escape on foot," Perkins said.
Water provided
As the sun set last Thursday, Sturdivant was still climbing up and down the tower, yelling down to negotiators. Eventually a Special Operations Team member climbed part of the way up to him and left water and a cell phone for him. Sturdivant used that phone to communicate with negotiators until its battery died.
Early Friday morning, the man was persuaded to come to the ground with the promise of food placed at the base of the tower. When he hit the ground, arrest teams moved in and told him to stop. He immediately began climbing again.
The arrest team shot pepper balls and less-lethal rounds to try to get him to stop, but he continued to climb through the fray, Perkins said.
"Whenever we have an arrest team, we will have lethal coverage (and) less-lethal coverage," Perkins said. "If they're attempting to flee or escape, one of the options we will normally use is less-lethal."
Trust eroded
In retrospect, Perkins said that action eroded the trust that had been built up during the first day of negotiations.
"He was afraid if he came back down he would be subjected to more pepper balls," Perkins said. "Even to the very end. When we handed him a bottle of water, he realized we were telling the truth, and his demeanor changed."
As day two progressed, Sturdivant's movements slowed, and Perkins said the team realized it would need to scale back and give him more room.
Because the legs of the tower expanded triangularly as they went to the ground and transmission equipment was scattered on the ground, placing something underneath the tower to catch him in case he fell was impossible, Perkins said.
"We realized this was going to be an incident where we had no tactical options," he said. "We were just going to have to be patient and wait."
The police response became more minimal as the days progressed. The emergency personnel on scene were already on duty, so overtime was not an issue, Jordan said.
"We didn't expend exorbitant resources in getting him down," he said.
Cost not yet totaled
The exact cost to the Police Department will not be ready for release until next week, Capt. Jonathan Brooks said. Paperwork will have to be gathered from the department's various divisions.
While the incident occurred in the Mingo Division, officers were called in from other areas so manpower would not be depleted from that division, he said.
"We had many officers working the scene at different times, some on duty, some off duty and on overtime," he said.
About 20 officers were on the scene the first day and the needs were assessed and manpower adjusted as the days progressed, Brooks said. By the last few days, the number of officers was scaled back to about 10.
Fire Chief Allen LaCroix said the Fire Department played a much smaller role, supplying a ladder truck with a bucket manned by three firefighters.
He estimated that 120 man-hours were spent at the site and estimated the cost for the truck and firefighters at about $26,400.
LaCroix said the amount was normal on-duty cost for operations.
EMSA on hand
EMSA public information officer Chris Stevens said that despite the fact that EMSA was at the scene through much of the incident, the impact on the ambulance fleet was minimal.
"If the system got busy and we needed them somewhere else, we would plug another truck in," Stevens said.
EMSA officials were unable to put a dollar amount on the cost of their response Wednesday afternoon, he said.
Despite any extra costs, Jordan said police had "a moral and legal obligation to be there."
"We had a human life up there, someone intruding on someone else's property," he said.
After giving the man water on Thursday, police continued to offer Sturdivant food and water, but only if he would come down, Perkins said.
"After that, we figured out very quickly he was more than willing to stay up there as long as we would fuel him to do so," Perkins said. "We never denied him food and water. He just did not allow himself to have it."
Dehydration feared
In the fourth and fifth days, medical professionals were concerned about the effects of dehydration on Sturdivant's body, Perkins said. They wanted to supervise any fluids or food that were given to him to make sure his body could handle them.
"The medical professionals were saying, 'We have to get him down,' " Perkins said.
Through Lynn's and all of the negotiators' efforts, Sturdivant was brought down safely and without incident at 6:38 p.m. Tuesday. The saga ended just shy of 128 hours.
Jordan and Perkins both said they were pleased with the outcome and with the department's ability to coordinate response efforts with the Tulsa Fire Department, EMSA and the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office.
"Our tactics worked; our tools worked. Sometimes you have to give them time to work," Perkins said. "It was a real public safety win, not just a Police Department win."
Jordan said he "couldn't be more proud of my men and women in getting him down."
"Most SWAT operations and many patrol events are about bravery, courage -- taking very courageous action," Jordan said. "This time it was all about persistence, compassion and patience."
World Enterprise Editor Ziva Branstetter and World Staff Writer P.J. Lassek contributedto this story.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
