Suicide attempt defused

A parking structure at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian was shut down for roughly two hours Tuesday afternoon when a despondent man threatened to jump off the top story, Newport Beach police said.

The 32-year-old man tied one end of a rope to a car and the other end around his neck and threatened to kill himself while waving a large knife, Sgt. Evan Sailor said.

“Officers closed down the access points to the parking structure and began talking with the despondent male. Additionally, we had our crisis negotiators respond and conduct face-to-face negotiations with him. He responded by stepping down off the ledge and eventually at 2:30 p.m. surrendered to officers,” Sailor said.

While police negotiators tried to get the man to come down from the ledge, nervous patients waited inside the building. They were told only that they couldn’t get to their cars, but weren’t given any information about what was going on in the structure, said Derek Sabori, whose wife was at the hospital at the time giving him updates.

“The patients and family members waiting for their cars were fabulous and very patient. It went very smoothly,” said hospital spokeswoman Debra Legan.