Father upset Taser used on son before fatal jump
Associated Press
Mon July 30, 2007
Area: Spokane
SPOKANE - The father of a man who jumped to his death off the Monroe Street Bridge is wondering why police shocked his son seconds before the fall.
Josh Levy, 28, jumped to his death Friday afternoon after spending some 20 hours threatening to jump from the downtown bridge over the Spokane River.
Levy was shocked by a Taser right after police negotiators managed to talk him away from the bridge edge. But the Taser did not disable Levy, who then jumped and died when he hit the rocks below.
"I was assured all day that no violence would be taken toward my son," Dave Breidenbach told The Spokesman-Review on Saturday. "I don't believe that firing a Taser at a nonviolent potential suicide victim is a tactical maneuver."
Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said the Taser use was part of the hostage negotiations that led Levy to get off the bridge edge.
But only one probe of the Taser made contact with Levy, Kirkpatrick said.
"One of the success options that we give people in distress is, 'You make it look like we took you into custody,' and that was exactly what we were doing in talking with him," Kirkpatrick said.
"Our tactical plan was to apply one application of the Taser to bring him to the ground so we could get him in that custody," she said.
Levy climbed onto a bridge ledge Thursday afternoon. The towering, four-lane bridge was closed for about 20 hours as officers tried to talk him down.
Breidenbach said his son had dealt with severe depression for years and had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Earlier in the week, Breidenbach had picked him up from Western State Hospital in Steilacoom and brought him to Spokane.
Levy grew up in Spokane and later, Bainbridge Island, where his mother still lives.
Levy had attempted suicide before and jumped from three bridges in Western Washington without suffering significant injuries, Breidenbach said. Levy also had been talked down on other occasions.
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