First Posted: 2/17/2015
CELINA — A man is safe after the Celina Police Department responded to a report of an attempted suicide from a water tower Monday.
At about 8 p.m. Monday in the 400 block of Grand Lake Road in Celina, a 31-year-old Celina man climbed about 50 feet up a water tower while talking on his cellphone when police arrived on scene, Celina Police Chief Tom Wale said.
Once the man saw police, he continued to climb up the rest of the length of the water tower, about 147 feet from the ground, threatening to jump from the catwalk. He would not negotiate with police.
The Police Department chaplain, Pastor Randy Christian, was called to assist with the situation, Wale said. Christian was able to get the man to communicate with him and was ultimately able to talk the man down to safety and unharmed.
The man was on the tower for about one hour and 20 minutes, Wale said. He was transported to Grand Lake Health System in St. Marys. Wale said the man was battling “demons.”
Three hours earlier, at about 5 p.m. officers were sent to the Shell gas station in the 300 block of South Main Street upon a report of the man attempting entry into an employee’s car and attempting to steal a candy bar.
Officers spoke with the man and he denied the allegation. He told officers he was without a job and had no place to stay.
The man could face charges, Wale said, but the case will be reviewed by the Auglaize County Prosecutor’s Office.
