the left to avoid them then to continue his climb but as you can see, emergency services workers have a separate plan. they're coming down from above. his progress is extremely slow because he is having to clean the window as he goes. that is he is having to clean the window to make sure he can get a good grip on the window and that is slowing his climb a lot. he has not made a whole lot of progress since we've been here. he floors above a fourth floor landing and that's where he started. he's making slow progress, emergency services determined to stop him. it appears he's not going to get much further from where he is right now because that device is lowering as we speak to intercept him. that's what's going on now. this is going to come to an end it looks like fairly soon. come on back and we'll show you.

little bit exhausted. he's been at it for more than an hour. we saw him drinking something from his backpack. if we can go to that wider shot there, oh, something just -- >> they're breaking the window above him trying to get a place. he's avoided the esu people. there's a hole there. they're breaking the window above him so officers can get ahold of him, at least try to get him when he goes by that way and that's what flew by. it looked like glass. >> jim, what are you seeing there now? we could see that the guy a little shaken there. that glass just -- shards of it coming down. jim? >> we've lost contact with jim for a second. when he comes back, jim -- >> we're here, david. >> you can see a police officer with a head out the window now, jim. >> yeah, they just broke out that window as if what they have done, breaking the grates didn't

they just broke out a window directly above him. he's not getting much higher. and he must be realizing that now. they broke out a window in the building in order to get to him. they're also lowering that window washer scaffolding down to get him. he's not going to get much higher. he has eluded them for a short while. now he's going back to the right. but this climb is going to be over soon. you'll be able to see it end right here. they're going to pull him in on him on every side. you have the firefighters getting to the glass and blv that they're use -- and above that they're using the window washer device. >> clearly he's not moving now because the shards of glass are coming down and the officers clearly not worried about hurting him or not because they want him to stop. they want to get ahold of this guy before he hurts himself or hurts anybody else by falling heaven forbid.

because he can't move up because there are emergency services workers in every direction now. he must be realizing this is over now. i don't know at what point he saw the scaffolding coming down. he saw and heard the window break above him, showing their determination to pull him in. he must realize this is going to be over very quickly. he's also showing signs of fatigue. over. this has been enormously inconvenient. they had to close down 56th street. this is at rush hour in order to make sure this guy couldn't hurt anybody else. it looks like they're close to bringing him inside the building. >> there's a lot of resources that are put to try to get this man down. we still don't know why he chose to scale this tower. this happened somewhere around 4:00, so he's been at it for quite some time. clearly he's got to be exhausted

a little frustrated here. >> he has to be exhausted and has shown signs of fatigue. i don't know if you can see the orange bands that his feet are going in to. every time he moves he has to make sure he has a place to put his feet and he's got to support himself with his hands for those periods so he's got to be exhausted at this point. he must realize it's very close to being over because there are emergency services workers all around him and have even as we in order to get him. so he must realize this is over. he does actually appear to be trying to go up still. but obviously he can't go very far. >> i don't know how quickly this is going to be over. unless even if they lower that thing down, which they're right on top of him, or if they break a window right next to him, in some ways they have to assume he wants to give himself up because if they don't, it's going to be

can bring him in. >> bring him in safely. >> that's absolutely true. it will take them some time but he's not going to get much higher. the scaffolding is directly above him so he won't be able to go higher than he is and to his right, one floor up, there are emergency services workers who have broken through a grate. so at some point his climb will have to end and at that point he will realize that he has to come in. s really just a matter of him giving himself up because he can't go any higher. >> looks like he has three suction cups. he clearly knows what he's doing, perhaps has a lot of experience in rock climbing or mountain climbing. the pressure is on the suction cup on his legs, that orange wrap is wrapped around the suction cup. he does what rock climbers are calling smearing his shoe

the suction cup. his life totally dependent on those suction cups. looks like there are three of them. >> all the weight is on the suction cups. and he moves them around from side to side. he moves them left to right because he can't move up anymore. and again, i said this earlier but he's got to make sure that he's got a can the window. occasionally he has to stop and clean the glass in order to move. he's got to make sure the suction cups -- bill, you said there were three. i can't really see that closely from where i am. i thought there were four earlier but you may be right. he's got to make sure those have a clean grip on the window before he moves. extremely slow. it's got to be exhausting. and as you can see, there are emergency services workers virtually all around him.

determined to stop him and at some point he's going to have to give himself up. >> no doubt. you're right. there are four suction cups. looks like there's one hanging off the back of him and there's three right now on the window. but it looks like maybe he's saying okay, i got to give up at this point. i'm kind of cornered in here. maybe he's trying to go up to that area where the firefighters just punched out that window. it's hard to say at this point. be. i don't know. it appears to me he's actually moving further to the left now and maybe trying to get across that corner. it looks like that's what he's doing. we don't really know but he has moved further to the left now and appears to be trying to get around the corner to go up the building. if he does that, they will find another way to get him before he gets much higher. now he seems to be going up again. but again, right above him is

workers inside it. there he is. he's cleaning the window right there, trying to make sure that has a good grip on the window. going up again as he has been trying to avoid the emergency service workers. >> right now we want to go to n.j. burkett who is also there on the ground, and nj, i understand you spoke to a witness. >> in fact, actually i have two with me right now. we don't want to cut away from the scene on the side of trump tower but i want to take a moment to talk to a few witnesses, people who actually saw this man as he began to scale the side of the building. it's tyler jones and blake crossen who were out here. tell me, what did you see? >> he was immediately on our

up. he had two book bags with him. we were blindsided essentially. went away, and we turned around about two minutes later and he was running the side of the building just like a little ledge he was running on. we pull out our phones and start recording him. he was there for three or four minutes while he was turning up. he starts to freak out. he actually started dropping a couple things. when he saw us started dropping cords and stuff. once he got on the building, he had pieces of paper that he was holding up but we couldn't tell what it said. >> was it a sign of some kind? >> yeah, it looked like he took printer paper and had a sharpie and was holding it up to the glass. >> he was freaking out and really dropped everything he had. he had cords and stuff which is

so long. slowly they started evacuating us and making us go farther and farther down. >> did you speak to him? >> i heard him drop the f bomb if that counts. when he dropped all his stuff. >> that was the only thing you heard him say? >> yeah. he was just staring at us, kind of freaking out, thinking we're were cops. >> once he saw you, he rushed what he was doing. >> mm-hmm. we told the police security that he and a couple other things. somewhere in that corner of where he climbed up on the side of, we told them they could have gotten it. >> at first when you saw him doing this, what went through your mind? >> i actually pulled my phone out. i didn't know what to do. i told donald trump on twitter that there was someone on the side of his building. wasn't sure if it was going to

story out there. it seemed like a big joke at first. it was too surreal. >> blake, you said you thought he was going to go base jumping? >> yeah, i thought he was going to base jump because he took off sprinting over the rocks right above the public garden. he had -- it looked like parachutes but i guess it was bags. >> he had a lot of ropes. i thought he was going to rappel. he had to point up the suction the side of it, but he refused. they were underneath it. he kept dropping all of his stuff. when they started -- i guess they were yelling at him on the side of it. he started freaking out. he's actually made it a long distance since then. >> we heard security on the radio say there was nothing they could do and it was a danger to try to get him so all they could do was corner him. >> corner him and wait for the situation to resolve itself.

here. you're watching the emergency services unit, elite unit of the nypd. these guys are essentially the navy s.e.a.l.s of the nypd. they're extraordinary officers. we continue to watch the situation unfold here at the base of trump tower. >> n.j. burkett with two eyewitnesses that saw the young man get there. he put up some kind of sign on the window. no one knows what the sign said. it looks like this young man is moving awa the window. there are moving blankets to maybe cushion the sharp glass. he's moving to the less. i wonder, jim, is there any place -- he can go anywhere he wants unless they break open another window. >> again, we're sort of speculating here but it looks like they may have made a deal for him to come in. he's moved to the left but not so far as to avoid the people who broke out the window. if he wanted to avoid them completely, he'd be better off

deal to go in that window. you see they've put the blankets over the broken glass. that may be to reassure him it's safe to come in there, to make sure he's not injured. they literally broke out the window. you can see that up there. they broke up the window almost with a hammer. a few minutes ago we saw the glass falling. it may be he's agreed to there. we'll see right here, looks like he's going to try to avoid them. he's moving his suction cup rig off to the left to try to avoid them. we reported earlier about the scaffolding above him. that's moved back up the building. i don't know what the point of that is. i don't know if they can move it from one side to the other but it has moved away from him and it's 20 or 30 floors above him right now.

avoid emergency services workers. they'll have to come up with another plan to get him out. he's now going up it looks like as he continues his climb. again, his feet are in those orange sort of stirrups, orange belt that's on the bottom. he has to put the suction cups, plant the suction cups then move every piece extremely slowly. that's what he's doing right now. he's definitely moving off to with emergency service workers. he goes up here. >> he's got a long way to go. this is a 58-story building and it doesn't look like he plans to go in. >> he's now 12 stories up. it's starting to look like that. let's keep an eye on it. he's surprised us all day long. let's see what he's going to do. >> there's an orange colored

a purple one. they're each connected to one of those things and he needs to know for sure which one he is taking off and desuctioning. you can see him tightening it. little tightening devices on each of these things. then he has to untighten them and pull them off. each one brightly colored, those ropes, so he knows exactly which ones he's taking off and they're connected to his leg. >> i'm on the ground, i couldn't see the purple one, but you'r color coded for him so he knows exactly what has to move and at one point. but he is going up here and if he really wanted to avoid emergency services workers, he'd go off to the left. so we'll see what happens here. emergency services workers are in the broken window off to the right. they've put up a blanket in case he agrees to come in. we'll see right over the next few minutes whether he's going to avoid them or whether he's

in to the window. it's decision time though. >> he's going to have to make a decision quite soon. also emergency service workers, they've got to decide if this guy is going to continue to the left and move up, what is their next plan of attack? they've got to figure out what to do next. do they then go on a couple higher floors and break out a window and hope to coax him back in? this is quite a dilemma for them. >> it is. but keep in mind, these people are trained in this and they out a way and this again is trump tower so they have great familiarity with how it's laid out and how this will work. this is the nypd and this is emergency services. they train for this kind of thing. they'll have a plan if they don't already have a plan in place, they'll have one quickly and i'm told now he's on the 16th floor so i've been saying about 12 or 13 but he's on the

way to go. emergency services appears at least to be determined that he will not get much higher. >> let me bring everyone up to date at 5:17 on this wednesday afternoon. a man, that man right there in shorts and climbing gear with giant suction cups for the window has climbed to trump tower at 56th street in midtown manhattan. traffic shut down. we don't know why he's there. happened about an hour ago. and he's been climbing. n.j. burkett also on the ground dolan. n.j. set the stage for us on the ground. is there anything to break his fall from the 16th floor down to the ground? is there a patio or anything else, or is he straight up? >> there really isn't. he's about seven or eight stories above the subroof. the subroof is actually a garden terrace. it looks like he's really high up on the building but he's

stories above that subroof so obviously if he fell he'd be severely injured if not killed if he were to fall. but yes, 5th avenue is shut down going past trump tower. i think it is fair to say this portion of midtown is in gridlock now as a result of the police efforts here to secure the area around trump tower. 56th street i madison and 5th avenue. we are watching this unfold with two eyewitnesses, two tourists from newport news, virginia who actually saw the man as he began his climb, as he arrived on that terrace there to begin scaling trump tower. clearly that's what they believed he was up to at the time. pulled out suction cups, pulled

to scale the side of the building. those two witnesses are tyler jones and blake crosen from newport news, virginia. they saw the man begin the climb. what were you thinking when you saw him do that >> it's a little too surreal. you hear about this in movies but it was weird to watch it unfold. it didn't seem real to me. >> you said to me a were off the air, you said does this happen a lot in new york? no, no it doesn't. the lower portion of it provided almost a ladder for people to scale the building. not so here at trump tower. it's a very different design. >> i remember the times building, people climbing buildings in new york city, nothing new of course.

obviously in the middle of the presidential campaign although we do not know why this man is here. he talked to people who said he put some kind of sign against the window and they don't know what happened to him. he used a black marker sharpie and showed it inside to the people inside or someone inside or tried to but we don't know what was on there so we have no idea what he's doing the nypd esu workers inside. but clearly they're not taking a chance in trying to grab him even though they're only about four feet away. look at this. reaching a hand up. >> he's gesturing inside to them right now. but again, apparently trying to avoid them. let me show you where we are. this is 56th street. you see emergency services has put up this huge pillow, this

falls in this direction. it's a good 15 feet from the side of the building. that's where he is on the 16th floor. may have actually made his way up to the 17th floor right now but he's not going inside the building through that window. they broke out that window about a half hour ago and he's not going in to the building from that direction. building. about 17 floors up at this point. he has a long way to go if he plans to make it all the way up that building but there is nothing below him, directly below him to break his fall. if he comes down, if those suction cups fail, he will land hard on a landing, sort of a garden level on the 4th floor of

police clearly would have gotten rid of the sign if there was a political message. police would have gotten rid of that sign as quickly as possible. they did have to come in here quickly to close down 5th avenue and 56th street to make sure nobody else was hurt by whatever this stunt is, this man climbing the building right now. you can see he appears to be avoiding the emergency services going to continue his climb as far as he can get. >> 5:22 in the afternoon. 56th and midtown. 5th avenue shut down. this is causing a lot of people a lot of grief trying to get home. >> it appears this man is having conversations with the emergency services unit. they're going back and forth from time to time.

climbing, showing some sign of fatigue. clearly he's not giving up even though he's been surrounded by all sides. he's making his way to the left. he's scaling the south side of the towers. it's a 58-story tall building but he's somewhere between the 16th and 17th floor right now. no sign of giving up. >> jim, there's that big inflatable cushion. that's if he falls. fourth floor, or four floors down to the landing. that is just in case. he doesn't seem to be moving very fast away. so i wonder whether he likes his engagement with these cops that are there, the esu workers because if he didn't -- he's moving much more slowly than he was before. >> he's been engaging with the police almost the entire time. i don't know whether he's

doing. it has appeared from this distance to be a civil conversation but he has been engaging with them both below him and in that window that you see broken off to the right. almost since the beginning. he's had to move laterally on several occasions in order to avoid emergency serviceess she now he's planning to go up. they're definitely talking to him and engaging with him. it is not clear what his intentions are, other to keep going up. he has avoided them. it's necessarily slow because it's a slow rigorous process to get those suction cups on to the side of the building. he's also had to move laterally for the last half hour, 45 minutes just to avoid the

we're going to go here for a second. this young gentleman is clearly a climber. the way he's built he's done this many, many times before because he clearly knows what he's doing and is fully equipped. >> again, we still don't know why he's doing this, what his message is. meanwhile, let's go to joseph, a retired nypd detective sergeant. he's on the phone with us. thank you so much for joining us. you've been watching this unfold like the this point when you've got a guy who's just getting away. >> one of the things the police are going to be doing is almost like a hostage negotiation team. you're going to have your best negotiators out there to convince him to come off these windows and ledges. nobody wants to see him fall. nobody wants to see traffic get snarled for hours. and the police are going to have to try to do their best to

comes back inside. >> we saw the scaffolding coming down, the window washer scaffolding coming down. they realized if it went any lower it would hit him. doesn't seem like -- they want to give him an opportunity to get in, but it doesn't seem like they're going to try to get him forcibly in, or are they? >> no, i don't think they're going to try anything forced because any wrong move, doesn't suction cups on and it could be a tragedy. lowering the window washer thing, it's going to be another problem. it's above him. the only way they can do that is if they have one below him they can bring up and have the esu cops along with the fire department to get him down. >> certainly they have daylight hours on their side right now but as we transition in to the evening, this could be more problematic. >> sure, absolutely. they'll bring in the spotlights and the helicopters will be up

lights too to be able to watch his progress to try to see if we can convince him to end this, whatever he's trying to prove or make a statement, whatever. >> can you talk about the negotiation process here? we've been seeing this exchange going on between the climber and some of the emergency services unit. can you talk about what they may be saying to him to try to coax him to come in? >> sure, they might even engage to try to talk to him, otherwise maybe bring somebody to the scene. it doesn't look like he's doing this so that he's trying to get away from somebody like you would maybe a hostage situation so it might be a good idea if we can get somebody in there to help talk him inside the building. anybody who's watching this, he's going so slow that this could be going on for hours. >> it really could be. it looked at one point that he was going to maybe turn himself

a fairly friendly and spirited conversation. is this a member like a hostage negotiator there or any member of the esu? >> usually the hostage negotiation team comes out of the detective bureau. so there's really no hostage negotiation team per se but they have members throughout the whole city so there's always somebody on call so when something like this happens, you've got your detectives in manhattan to respond to the building. >>le negotiator is not working at this point. what do you think is the next plan of attack in getting this man inside? >> unfortunately we're going to have to wait for him. he's still talking so hopefully he'll be convinced to come inside. if not we're going to have to wait for him to get to the actual roof before they take him in. >> do you think they'd take another chance to knock out another window and try to grab

that scaffold come down that the window washers use to come down. we saw that just above the climber a few stories up. then they brought it back up to the roof again. do you think they'll try to use that on the other side of the building? what is their game plan, do you think? >> the window washer ledge is going to be something that might be in play here. they might break out a few more windows farther north. but you have to beer because if they move too fast and this guy slips, people are going to be questioning why did the police move so quickly. so we want the police to move then if something happens, they'll say what did you do? so they're going to take this real slow. >> during our conversation, he's clearly now using four suction cups and still got one hanging behind him. who knows what he has in his backpack but he clearly knows what he's doing and has some experience climbing as a sport or recreation.

i wouldn't have made it five feet on that building before i fell off. he definitely knows what he's doing. one good thing is whoever is speaking to him, looks like he's building a rapport with him because he keeps on looking down to answer questions. that's a good sign. we might be able to convince him after he gets to a certain point or he realizes how much media attention he's actually gotten, he thinks he did his job or whatever he wanted to prove and hopefully he'll come in quietly. >> hang with us for a second, detective sergeant. we're going talking to nypd retired detective. you're watching a special edition of eyewitness news at 5:30. a young man, clearly an experienced mountain climber seemingly knows what he's doing. started suctioning up the trump tower. 56th street and 5th avenue in midtown. in the 4:00 hour. and he's been going up ever since. the nypd esu unit, the s.e.a.l. team, s.w.a.t. team of the

o be called s.w.a.t. team. they broke out a window. they originally brought a window scaffolding down. he's been conversing with the esu members inside the broken window. they've not broken any other windows. we don't know why he was there. when he first went up he wrote something on a white piece of paper and put it up against a window. some message, we don't know. and we don't know what happened to that piece of paper but he showed it to someone inside and he started climbing. we don't know why he's there because it's the trump tower, in case you've noticed mr. trump is the republican nominee for president, this takes on even greater significance and importantly midtown, manhattan at the rush hour is shut down at 5th avenue and areas residing around 56th street. >> there's just gridlock in the area. joe, if you can stay with us. we're probably going to want to come back to you. right now let's go to jim dolan

anything about what's being communicated by this man scaling the building and with the nypd emergency services unit? >> he's just talking up a storm with whoever will listen up there. they are talking mostly tactics with him. they don't really care what his political agenda is, if he has one. talking about him surrendering. he's showing no signs of wanting to do that. they lowered a scaffolding down below to just a few floors above him. they've raised that scaffolding up and appears they've moved it to a different side of the building, whether that's part of whatever game plan they have is not terribly clear but he has made his way up now to the 17th floor. he was stuck there on the 16th

so. he's now going up. if there's a plan they have, it's not terribly apparent to us. they're clearly working on something to get him off of that building. they have moved a huge pillow, inflatable pillow to the window side. it's still going to be mighty hard if he falls. he does appear to be going up. that's the 18th floor he's getting close to right there. he's just put a suction cup on to the bottom of that 18th floor window. >> did you hear our interview with the retired nypd detective sergeant?

of something happening to him and anybody below are too great. this thing could drag out for a very long time. the sun is about two and a half hours or so before it sets, a little less than that. this thing could go on for a long time. the detective sergeants will bring in spotlights. you could be there, jim, for a long time depending when this young man decides to come in. >> yeah, when he's too tired to come in. 17 floors, you guys know a very tall building here at trump tower. it's taken him this long. we've been on the air now since a little after 4:00. so he has for a long time. he's continuing to go up. make no mistake, he's determined. esu is forming a plan and

i don't know how important daylight is to his rig up there. but he is continuing to climb. esu so far, they wouldn't try to pull him off of the building. their goal is to minimize any damage and to try to make sure nobody gets hurt including him. >> let's go to n.j. burkett now. as we continue to look at the shot of the man scaling the buil ground where you are, 5th avenue is shut down. there's just gridlock in the area. can you describe the scene now? >> it looks like one of those disaster movies where you've got people lined up on the side of the building, touristvise stopped everything they're

through the area. traffic is shut down in front of trump tower, which of course is in the heart of midtown manhattan. all that is going on. one thing that occurred to me is that if we do get rain here, that's going to present a significant challenge to this guy as he tries to make his way up the side of the building as police try to review their tactics and figure out how best to handle this. as i'm sure you've mentioned several times, officers don't the supervisors don't want to put them in jeopardy. it's a very difficult situation because right now the only person who's in jeopardy is the guy who chose on his own to scale the side of this building. he clearly is showing no signs of wanting to come off of the

people who saw him begin to scale the building. we've been talking to them and watching as this man has tried to do what he's doing on the side of the building. if you can just recap now for the audience, how it was that you were able to see this guy and what you saw him doing at the very beginning. >> we saw him because we were on the public garden on the top floor. he was acting kind of weird, jumping around, took basketball shorts off andoo side on the rocks like this balcony area. >> but again, to recap, he didn't say anything to you specifically? i know he used an expletive when he saw you were watching him and apparently his cover had been blown or something. then there was a sign i guess he had with him or some sort of piece of paper with writing on it. >> yeah, once we had been kicked off the top, you could see him holding up a piece of -- looked like printer paper with sharpie writing on it.

building had kicked everyone out too far to be able to read what it said. he was holding it up and dropped it. he was trying to get the message out. >> right, and tyler jones, you saw the initial assent up the side of the building. he didn't say about what he was doing or why? >> not at all. he was in a panic when we first saw him. i guess he shot nobody saw him, after he got to the end of the and started really panicking. started to go from there, dropped some things. words weren't really being said directed to us, more in general cuss words to himself. >> what are you thinking now, as one of the only people who actually saw this thing from the beginning? >> in hindsight i kind of wish we could have grabbed him or stopped him because this whole thing wouldn't have unfolded. there's absolutely no way to stop that. there's no way to prevent this.

to help the situation. >> i know security was alerted pretty quickly once you guys were clear as to what was happening. >> they were really on it. they started kicking everyone out floor by floor. when they noticed there was no way they could get him from where he was at, they completely escorted everyone out the building. they handled it professionally. >> and to make it clear to the audience, donald trump is not in the building and has not been in the building today. that's clearly not an issue here. but you actu tweet out shortly after security knew in the building. you sent a tweet. >> if we left the scene, we'd lose footage, so i thought i'd send him a quick tweet, saying something was happening, not expecting a response but definitely a cry-out. >> did you get a response? >> i did not get a response from donald trump. >> they obviously figured out

newport news, virginia. thank you both for giving us a lot of insight. you're the only people i've seen canvassing the crowd out here in trump tower to have seen the original ascent as the man went up the side of the building. >> we were the only two. >> who wanted to get a look from that subroof, that lovely garden up there which has now become a e they've set up this huge inflatable mattress at the subroof. they've got another one down at street level so if he were to fall in either direction, it would somehow in theory soften the blow. you wouldn't want that to happen to you. >> it appears at one point they drilled a hole in the glass and put a little sheet, maybe an attempt to make him surrender or grab him and pull him through but he's said no to that and

do. >> as jim dolan has been pointing out the last hour or so, he's evading police. he's going to the left, to the right, up, side. seems to be doing everything he can do to remain up there for as long as he can. that's the scene from the ground, speaking with two eyewitnesses who have been watching the scene unfold from the very beginning. back to you guys in the studio. >> we can still see this cat and mouse game unfolding here on the south side of the trump towers. been added for more than an hour and a half now showing some signs of fatigue. we do have nypd emergency services units there on the scene trying to coax this man inside but he's refusing to do so. still making his way to the left. the last time we checked, they did bring out the scaffolding

again. it's now maneuvered on the other side of the building so they're attempting to get him again from another vantage point? >> not the other side of the building but a different facing of the south side of the building. they are lowering it now. it appears what they're doing, we can't be sure but it appears what they're doing is to try to box him in. he could move off to the left before to avoid that scaffolding but now it's coming down the extreme south side, extreme face of the building where they will lower it to his level and then either break out windows on either side of him or somehow try to get him in from the outside. they would not try to pull him in but they would make it clear he wasn't going to get any further. we'll see this unfold during the course of the broadcast. but it appears what they're doing now is bringing the scaffolding down, extreme south side, extreme south face of the

he can't move laterally to the left. and again, they broke out a window earlier. they may break out another one or wait till he gets to an area where there's a grate and try to break out a grate to try to make it clear to him he can't move any further up the building from that vantage point. the window washing scaffolding isn't a crime fighting device. it's slow. it's still coming down the side of the building. it will take a while to get to know it's there yet. he can't see it from his vantage point. right now he's been talking with the police and emergency services workers for some time. but they aren't anywhere near him right now. they're in windows two floors below him. if they're talking to him, they're having to shout because he's still moving up the side of the building. they'll probably reposition themselves slightly above him as

hiss left side. that's where we are right now. the plan is beginning to take shape to get him off the building. there could be rain here and he's working with a suction cup rig and the rain will definitely interfere with that for sure. right now there are blue skies directly above him and he's going up the side of the building. >> to reset what's happening, jim dolan and n.j. burkett at man, apparently an experienced mountain climber or rock climber climbing the trump tower, 56th street and 5th avenue midtown. we don't know why he's there. he did write some sign with a sharpie. we don't know what happened to that sign and a piece of paper so we don't know why he's there, why this is news is because obviously we have building

window two stories below this young man. it's coming down to try to coax him in. there is a lot of other news going on right now. we are going to have the news we're normally going to have on eyewitness news at 5:00 on our website for those of you who want to take a look. >> we do have a picture that someone took from inside the building looking at the climber can you talk about when we first suspected he actually got on to the building? >> that was earlier this afternoon. he was on the garden level and started setting up his rig and there was nobody there to react to that fast enough. i spoke with emergency services workers just a few moments ago

is, the training is always to not talk to a person in this position about what their agenda is, to talk to them solely about tactics, to talk to them only about what doing, not why they're doing it, to get him off message as much as possible. while he's been talking throughout this assent up this building, emergency services workers are trained not to talk to him about why he's doing it but only about what he's doing is. so their plan, their discussions with him have all been tactical and not very much about his political agenda is. as you can see that scaffolding is continuing to make its way down the building but still about 30, 35 floors away from him. >> jim, we're going to come right back to you. you've been listening to all of this, joe.

that's going on between the emergency services unit and this climber. >> they want to make sure he comes inside the building. we don't want to see him slip and fall. if it starts raining, it could become very slippery and be a problem. they want to try to end this as quickly as possible. i wouldn't be surprised if he had a banner or something in his from the building. he is on his agenda and seems he's going to fulfill his obligation, whatever he thinks he wants to do. >> we're almost going hours now that he's been out there climbing. what is the approach at this point? >> patience. this is something you have to try to use as much time as you can. we don't want to force any issues because we don't want him

to end this thing as quickly as possible. all these people trying to get home with all the traffic. at this point the idea is to try to get him in safely and deal with everybody else after the fact. >> amy freeze here looking at the weather coming in and watching the storms out east says we're not going to get rain at least for a while. rain is not the issue these folks and t going to be faced with. mr. trump is not there. he's headed to fort lauderdale for a rally tonight and so this is not about mr. trump being there. but that's the reason we're covering this wall to wall. for those of you writing in on social media saying where's the other news, this is big news because this is a building belonging to the candidate for president of the united states, republican nominee and

us this afternoon. hang on if you could because this could be a long night. i don't know how long we'll stay with it but we'll keep an eye on it. we'll have this on our website, abc7ny. jim dolan, you're still there i take it. >> i just wanted to point out that the scaffolding continues to come down. we said a few minutes ago there were blue skies above us but it the last few seconds and the possibility of rain, i don't know what amy was saying about rain but it looks like it was possible. police are setting up their efforts on the 21st floor. he's about the 19th floor, maybe the bottom of the 19th floor right now. they're setting up an operation on the 21st floor as the scaffolding continues to come down. they expect to be able to reach his level when he gets up to about the 21st floor. with the scaffolding they'll reach his level at about the

they're setting up operations. it's not clear if that's where it will end but that's where they're going to try to make it end. >> this has been quite difficult for them. they thought they were going to catch him much lower when they knocked out the window. we could see the shards of grass raining down. then they brought in the scaffold. that didn't work. we can see on the left side of the screen, the scaffold at another area coming down. hopefully that will work. but jim, this is slow going here. there, it looks like they're about to break out another pane of glass up there. i don't know if you can see that. that's going to fall right down on him. the glass is going to fall right down around but they are definitely trying to break out a pane of glass again to try to intercept him. remember when they moved the scaffolding down before, they moved it down on the face he's

the scaffolding. now they've moved the scaffolding to his left, extreme south face of the building. and they're going to stop him moving laterally to the left. if they break out that window on the 21st floor, then he can't go any further up the building either so it looks like this showdown is going to come up about two floors where he is right now and it will take them a little while to get there but they're close now. >> we're going to bring in meteorologist amy freeze in for lee tracking the storms out east. what's the likelihood of any rain here in manhattan tonight? >> on the radar right now, we definitely have cloud coverage. we've got this instability because of the heat and humidity but there are no showers imminent here. on the accutrack, we don't have anything coming up. our satellite and radar combined shows we're socked in with clouds. as it gets closer to sunset, of course darker and darker it

are at east 56th, it's dry for now and we've got at least probably an hour at the very, very minimum before anything would develop. >> certainly esu workers there and for this young man, no matter what his agenda is, jim, you heard the detective say they're not going to attack politics, despite the friendly conversation they're appearing going to talk politics. >> i'm sorry. they are trying to break out a pane of glass. i'm working down here on the ground. they are trying to break out a pane of glass above him. i thought it was two floors, may be three floors above where he is right now as that scaffolding comes down, they're going to try to box him in right there. if you asked a question, i did not hear it. >> it's okay, we're actually getting new information about

and he's from virginia. it appears he dropped a laptop computer when he first started climbing. he then apparently had a note pad he was briefly showing in to the windows before dropping that too. that's a bit of the new information we've had thus far. we've been talking about the signs of fatigue here. a few moments ago, we could see him stretch out his arm, kind of twist his wrist. just to try to give himself some energy to keep climbing but he's surrounded by the nypd emergency services unit, he's pressing on. you talked about how they're having a new approach now. >> it appears that way. it appears they're trying to break out a big pane of glass directly above him. if they break that out and it's been rippling now from the pound of what appeared to be hammers. i don't know what they're using. but it has been rippling now for a little while.

come raining down over him because that's the idea. they want to break out a pane of glass that's in his path. that's what they're doing now. you see the scaffolding very close to him now. that will eliminate an escape to the extreme south side of the building, and if they break out the glass above him -- they thought they had him before but they'll have him close to cornered. you mentioned the fatigue. when they had him earlier, he floors above the ground. he's 19 floors above the ground and has had to move laterally. he's got to be tired already, just imagine the energy he's expending trying to avoid the police, let alone climb the building. they've got a plan. it's not clear exactly how it will all unfold. but we are here watching and we'll show it to you. >> we have a great shot now of the scaffolding, only about two floors above his head.

they're trying to break out the glass. they're going to box this young man in. there's no question about it. it's interesting he dropped a laptop computer or notebook as he was beginning his ascent on this. who knows if he's going to use this to broadcast on social media, who knows. it's very popular on social media, the facebook live page, we have 60,000 people watching this. it's grown fast because it's captivating. what you're watching is a young an experienced mountain climber, certainly looks like that, using very strong suction cups that actually turns air, creates a very strong vacuum. it really holds his body weight up, the mountain climbers use. but more importantly, that glass movers use to actually lift up huge panes of glass and he's climbing. it's been going on since the 4:00 hour and he's on trump tower in midtown manhattan, 56th

at a standstill. gridlock there. mr. trump was not there. he was in virginia where this man named steve apparently lives as well. he's now in florida. he is running for president so this is taking up our entire eyewitness news at 5:00 as we go in to the 6:00 hour. if you're interested in the other news of the day we do have it on our website. we're covering that for you. we're not leaving you without your news of the day. that scaffolding starts to come down. just two floors above. he's climbing up to meet it. at this point. this started unfolding shortly around 4:00. so now we're going in to two hours now and again, this is a cat and mouse game playing out on the south side of the trump towers. you can see crews there coming in on the scaffolding left-hand side but you can see this guy steve from virginia still making his way up trying to stay away from the edge so he cannot get nabbed. this is quite a precarious

>> we're looking at the windows they're trying to break out above him. you were talking at the time you saw that big shard of glass. they're trying to break that window out. it went flying by him. this young man is in pretty good shape and looks like remarkable shape. people who do this generally are. he doesn't look to be too tired. he must be tired, but he definitely does not seem to have slowed down a lot. this guyno i don't know what his goal is in all this. i don't know what his goal is in all this but he's not relinquishing it, that's for sure. >> we are waiting by here. we're waiting for him to be hopefully caught by the emergency services unit. this has been playing out for almost two hours now. and when will it come to an end, we just don't know. but hopefully it will be sooner

right now you're watching eyewitness news at 6:00. >> right now it begins with a breaking news. the young man on the 18th floor, 16th floor of the trump tower at 56th street and fifth avenue, the area shut down. if you're just joining us, we've been covering this for the last hour and a half. he has five suction cups. he's using four that he's employed right there. he has different colored ropes that are tied to his legs. he's well s and he's vacuum pumping that air in there as you can see to hold on. he'll now put his foot in to the purple rope. and use that to holster himself up and all his body weight will be on that then move the other one up, take the air out of there, de-vacuum it, de-pressurize it, and move up. this is strenuous work. he's apparently an experienced climber. you don't know why he's there. that's the mystery. jim dolan is on the ground for

start with jim. set the stage for the viewers just joining us for eyewitness news at 6:00. >> this is pretty interesting actually. we see what he does not see. he does not know that scaffolding off to the left which holds emergency service workers in the scaffolding. he does not know that that's over there to his left. he doesn't know it's there blocking his potential path to the left in case the window breaks above him. he can probably hear they're trying to break out a window above him. he doesn't see the scaffoldi he is. he doesn't know that it's there. blocking that possible route for him so he's continuing to go off to the left. they're trying to break out a window, bottom of the 20th floor right now. they're trying to break out a window above him. they've been talking to him over the last few minutes about the possibility of giving up his backpack to get rid of some of the weight. he's reluctant to do that.

contact with them because he's afraid they're going to pull him in. that's not the plan. they don't plan on pulling him in. they're hoping to give him no other option but to come in. we want to remind everybody this is not just a guy who's climbing a building. he's closed off 56th street. he's closed off 5th avenue to traffic at rush hour. he's causing an enormous problem for people in the city as he ascend the building for reasons we do not know yet. they're trying to make sure he doesn't have a path to keep going higher up on the building and you see the scaffolding there if he tries to make his move to the left. he'll see that scaffolding as well. that's the situation right now. it's coming to a head it looks like.