Jeering Mob Goads Suicidal Man To Jump To Death

By R. Siva Kumar - 17 Mar '15 06:20AM

One man, aged 40, who jumped from the roof of a multi-storey car park in UK, was urged by a huge, mocking, jeering crowd, according to mirror.com.

He jumped from a height of 60ft (18.2m). Some of the crowd even videotaped the tragedy in their mobile phones.

Some callous members of the public shouted: "Get on with it", "Go on, jump," and even asked: "How far can you bounce?"

West Mercia police officers were called to the scene outside the busy Southwater shopping centre in Telford, Shropshire, at around 1p.m. They called the crowd "appalling" and some specialist negotiators tried to calm him down, yet the main jumped to his death at 3.40 p.m.

Inspector Ben Smith, from the force's operational control centre, exclaimed that he was "shocked" by the crowd. He said: "Obviously we would certainly not be supportive of that kind of behaviour.

"It is pretty appalling because it is someone who is clearly in need of support and assistance. That behaviour is something we would condemn. Clearly what that individual needed was time and space and a professional to help them out.

"The individual would have been in need of care and support and appropriate intervention from medical professionals, so anything like that to encourage someone to jump should be unequivocally condemned."

One of the bystanders, 20-year-old Kelly Porter-Smith, said: "I am so disappointed in the actions of some of our citizens during a time of crisis. I am so incredibly sad for him.

"I work in town and I am going to find it hard to be up there every day."

Rosie Brown, 44, from Wellington, Shrops., wrote on Facebook: "The people were goading the man to jump. May you or any member of your family and friends never reach a point in your life where you reach a dark place and the only option you feel will make the pain go away is to end it. Never judge until you have walked in those shoes. Depression is not a laughing matter."

The car park finally reopened on Saturday evening.

A spokesman for Telford & Wrekin Council, the owners, confirmed: "Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the man who died at Southwater."