A Bainbridge Island man who jumped to his death from a bridge in Spokane on Friday had earlier jumped from at least one Kitsap County bridge and made threats to jump on other occasions, according to local law enforcement.
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 over the railing and died when he hit the rocks below.
Levy had threatened to jump from the rooftop of a Bainbridge Island home in February 2005, according to the Bainbridge Island Police Department.
He successfully jumped from the Agate Pass Bridge in August 2006, and made two threats to jump again in January and May this year, police said.
Levy had jumped from a total of three bridges in Western Washington without suffering significant injuries, Levy's father, Dave Breidenbach, told The Spokane Spokesman-Review on Saturday.
Breidenbach, who lives in Spokane, wondered why police there used a Taser on his son seconds before the fatal fall from the Monroe Street Bridge in Spokane.
"I was assured all day that no violence would be taken toward my son," he said. "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."
Levy climbed onto a bridge ledge on 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 picked up his son from Western State Hospital and brought him to Spokane to stay with him. Levy grew up in Spokane and later moved to Bainbridge Island, where his mother still lives.
Kirkpatrick said her negotiators were upset by the suicide.
"The officers invested their hearts, their souls into helping him," Kirkpatrick said. "So for them to see that occur is truly devastating to them as well."
But Breidenbach compared the event to last year's death of Otto Zehm, a janitor who suffered from mental illness and died after he was falsely accused of a crime and Tasered and hogtied by police.
"We're going to give substantial time and effort to see that this never happens again to another person who is non-confrontational and non-aggressive," Breidenbach said. "I just want this not to happen again."
