Crime & Safety

VIDEO: Man Who Climbed Trump Tower Charged With Felony (Updated)

The Trump Tower climb ended after more than two hours, when a police officer grabbed the climber's arm and pulled him through a window.

Mark Osborne, Patch StaffVerified Patch Staff Badge
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See also: Man Who Climbed Trump Tower Explains Why He Did It

UPDATE, Aug. 11, 10 a.m.: Police have identified young man who shut down swaths of Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday, as the city watched him climb Trump Tower, as 19-year-old Stephen Rogata of Great Falls, Virginia.

Rogata been charged with first-degree reckless endangerment and third-degree criminal trespassing, police said.

The reckless endangerment charge is a felony. If Rogata is found guilty, he could spend up to seven years in prison.

Original story below.

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A shaggy young man in rock-climbing gear and a baseball cap sent New York City into throes of horror and delight on a muggy summer Wednesday by attempting to climb Trump Tower at 725 Fifth Ave., the premiere NYC property of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, using a set of five giant suction cups.

The climb lasted nearly two and a half hours and brought rush-hour traffic to a standstill in Midtown.

Above is the best full-length video we could find of the climb. And below is a play-by-play of the action from Patch editor Simone Wilson, as blogged in real time.

4:30 p.m.

The NYPD has confirmed that police officers are on the scene, but that they can't do much more than watch.

That goes for the rest of Midtown, as well:

5 p.m.

Cops have shut down a stretch of 5th Avenue while they figured out a way to pull the climber off the tower, causing massive gridlock in the area.

According to CNN, the man told police that his name is Steve and he is from Virginia.

5:30 p.m.

Nearly an hour and a half after the climb began, members of the NYPD's SWAT team can be seen peeking their hard hats through a broken window, just beneath the climber, now suctioning himself up past the 17th floor — but whatever their strategy, it isn't seeming to deter Steve from Virginia.

"He is just talking up a storm to whoever will listen up there," an ABC commentator observes on live TV.

Two huge, inflatable pillows have apparently been set up in hopes of catching the climber's fall: One on the roof garden of the Trump Tower's twin building, and one on the street below.

5:45 p.m.

TV news reporters are in a complete frenzy as the sun sets over our Trump Tower climber Wednesday evening — a people's hero, by this point.

CNN and ABC talking heads have so far compared the scene on Fifth Avenue to, among other things, an apocalypse. They've also been speculating as to the climber's possible terrorist motives.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he has a banner in a knapsack that he's going to hang from the building" to promote an "agenda," Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant, says in a phone-in to the ABC broadcast.

6 p.m.

This guy has been at it for almost two hours now.

His climbing technique is something of a slow, beautiful dance: He unscrews one of five suction cups to release its pressure; chooses a new spot for the cup a few feet up; pumps a lever on the cup so it clings to the wall; places his foot into a colorful loop of rope hanging from the cup; hoists himself up; goes about unscrewing another of the cups; and so and so on, untiring, ad infinitum.

"This is not just a guy climbing a building," an ABC commentator says.

"This is strenuous work. He's apparently an experienced climber," another says.

6:10 p.m.

Cops have removed a giant Trump Tower window pane a few floors above the climber.

There's also a window-washing bucket (full of cops, not window washers) hanging from the tower's other face. They're apparently waiting to pounce if and when the climber shifts course to the left.

Will this be enough to stop him? Or will our fearless urban cupper continue to outsmart The Man into the night? Stay tuned to find out.

6:30 p.m.

Some guy on Twitter with 101 followers took a close-up shot of the climber, apparently from within Trump Tower. The tweet has since been deleted, but here's a screen shot:

A video has also surfaced on YouTube of a young man, who looks a lot like the guy pictured above, telling a video camera why he's climbing Trump Tower. The video was posted one day ago, on Aug. 9. It's embedded below. However, we have NOT confirmed its authenticity.

"I am an independent researcher seeking a private audience with you to discuss an important matter," the young man says in the video. "I guarantee it is in your interest to honor your request."

He also says he's a Trump supporter.

6:30 p.m.

The great Trump Tower climb of summer 2016 just ended safely — if somewhat anticlimactically — when a police officer grabbed the climber's arm and pulled him into the window hole where cops have been chilling.

"Cheers and a huge sigh of relief from the hundreds of people gathered on the corner here," says an ABC reporter on the street below.

Yet still no word from Trump — normally the first guy we hear from in times of intense PR opportunity — on whether Steve will get a face-to-face for his efforts.


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