The 44-year-old man who spent the better part of two days in a tree in Queens has finally come down after repeated attempts from NYPD hostage negotiators to talk him into climbing down.
Police responding to a 911 call Wednesday about a dispute inside a building on 145th Avenue in Brookville encountered Roody Thomas when they arrived. They say he was wanted in connection with a past assault but didn't specify the nature of it. News 4 has learned the dispute involved some kind of argument with his mother, but there was no indication that any physical violence was involved at the time of the call.
Thomas ran away from the officers and climbed onto the roof of the home. Emergency crews responded and tried to talk the man down -- but he moved into a nearby tree in an effort to avoid officers, police say, and refused to come down.
The NYPD's hostage negotiation unit had been on scene for much of the 48 hours attempting to keep a dialogue and convince the man to come down. Neighbors say he has also managed to get into his house a few times via a window near the same height as the tree.
Get Tri-state area news and weather forecasts to your inbox. Sign up for NBC New York newsletters.
Firefighters came by with a ladder truck and tried to get the man to come down but they say he swung a large stick at them.
It wasn't until late in the day Friday when the man finally scaled down the tree around 5 p.m. moments after police officers left the neighborhood. Community leaders initially said he wanted to change before they intended to take him to the hospital for evaluation.
A police spokesperson told the Associated Press Thomas made it to a hospital Friday and confirmed that the pending criminal matters against him would still need to be resolved.
Local
A local community activist told News 4 that she had tried to talk to the man but it didn't work. "I was speaking with him, we were joking," Sabine French said.
"I was asking 'why are you in the tree? you're stressing people out, come down.' We were joking but then at one point, I believe the feeling was the communication was interfering with the communication of law enforcement," the community activist added.
Police say the man is also wanted on a prior warrant for allegedly assaulting an ex-girlfriend.
