INGLEWOOD – A man who appeared to be laying under a blanket on a bridge above the San Diego (405) Freeway near Florence Avenue in Inglewood surrendered to authorities Thursday evening, ending an extended police response that backed up traffic for miles for almost four hours.
“The situation has been resolved,” said California Highway Patrol Officer Patrick Kimball.
The man had a “behavioral emergency” prompting him to lay on the bridge, NBC4 reported.
There was no further information on the man or why he climbed up to the bridge.
Visible homeless encampments dot the freeway.
The CHP received a call at approximately 6:23 p.m. regarding a man wearing a white shirt and dark pants climbing a metal fence by the bridge near the Manchester Boulevard on-ramp, Kimball said.
Los Angeles County firefighters were also called to assist in trying to coax the man down.
“The initial call was the man was a jumper,” Kimball said.
CHP closed all but one lane of the southbound portion of the freeway in the vicinity of the overpass around 6:40 p.m. and all but one lane of the northbound portion an hour later, causing a traffic snarl during rush hour.
Traffic was diverted to Manchester and La Cienega boulevards.
All northbound lanes were reopened just after 11 p.m.
2UrbanGirls contributed to this article.
