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.

steve is from virginia. he then had a note pad he was showing through the windows before dropping that too. clearly that may have shown his motive in all this. 5th avenue is shut down. there's gridlock in the area. this is not the thing you want to have happen during the rush hour. >> obviously the big story here is this is the trump tower, very famous building. obviously it's causing aru for midtown traffic at rush hour but it's also owned by donald trump and he's running for president. that's why we're there covering the story. n.j. this guy steve from virginia, trump was in virginia today. just by chance you happened to be talking to an eyewitness from virginia earlier today. >> absolutely right. it is a bizarre series of coincidences. no question about it. if i can set the scene for you here on the ground, obviously we

the scene unfolding on the side of trump tower, but you need to imagine the scene at 56th street and madison which is where i am now where the intersection is absolutely jammed with people. police converged on the area. they roped it off. there's a very strong police presence, literally hundreds of officers in this area who have sealed off 56th street at madison and sealed off 5th avenue across from trump tower so as expect, we are in gridlock now in of course at the worst possible time perhaps for that to happen in new york city which is of course the height of rush hour. but i'm here on the corner with this sort of throng of people here and i'm speaking now with rex from seattle. cat newman who's from berlin, germany.

part of two hours. describe to me what it's been like watching this. people have been watching at home. they're seeing this in one dimension. what do you make of it? >> first off, it's impressive, scaling a building for two, three hours, however long he's been up there. it's incredibly ambitious. but it's a lot of energy on the street. you're worried for the guy if something happens with suction cups. and you just wonder how the heck all this happened. >> exactly right. from the witnesses we've spoken to, he didn't say anything prior to simply throwing himself at the building. and then climbing up the side. cat, what do you make of it? >> first of all, we didn't even know he was still climbing. we thought at some point he was

him climbing the building. so we don't know if he still plans on going up even further, if eventually he's going to hopefully crawl in to a window. it's just unbelievable. i've never seen anything quite like that. >> you can't really take your eyes off it. >> no, you can't. it's crazy. we've been watching for such a long time. we've moved from one block to the other block. we can't leave because we want to see what happens to him. >> we want to see how the police will handle this situation. it's a very, very delicate situation. the police don't want to put themselves at risk. the officers don't want to put themselves at risk. they want to try to save this guy because they don't really

the plan is. >> the police sirens or whatever that machine is down there is cutting your audio out. i will say this guy has been climbing for a couple hours. we've watched him for an hour and 40 minutes or so. he's stopped and had a sip of water from what i can tell one time. we've seen him take one sip of water. we know there's a water bottle inside there. as someone said, it's going to hours. they'll bring lights in but this guy is in it for the long haul. even great mountain climbers stop and have a protein bar or a drink of water. on the other hand, he's going to try to not consume too much water for obvious reasons because he doesn't want to have to relieve himself in the middle of the building. >> looks like they're trying to knock that out.

at some point. cops have been talking with this guy, trying to get him down, actively negotiating with him. as you've been saying, they need to safely isolate him but they don't want to do anything that may put his life at risk. >> that's exactly right. they've had a couple opportunities where they were close enough if they wanted to risk trying to pull him in but to eliminate his options which is what they're doing now with the scaffolding you see off to and by trying to at least appears they're trying to break out a window above him. you have to believe they may just be trying to test the strength of the glass. that's about a floor and a half above where he is. that's what they're trying to do

options. the scaffolding is moving with him. >> so is the window. >> this is a large window. this is not just one small pane. >> to me it looks like they're not going to break it out, they're trying to use suction cups much like he has and try to get the window out without creating shards of glass. >> i see what you're saying. they do appear to be pulling it from inside rather than trying exactly. there it goes. >> there goes the glass right there. they have moved the window open and that may be as far up the side of the building as they're going to let him go. he could still move off to the right but he can't move off to the left. if they open up a pane of glass like they just did there off to his right, that will eliminate any options he may have. they appeared to have drawn

go. so he's gone three stories since we've been on the air. this could be a long night. >> one of the advantages, bill, is this is such a large pane, a couple of the nypd units could certainly try to grab him at that point. clearly they have some advantage in their approach so far. but they'll try to eliminate his options. we don't think he knows there's a scaffolding off to his left that will block his exit in that direction. but you can see he knows now the window is open. they're talking to him. he appears to be moving laterally to his right. >> if they wanted to really stop him that way, they could open all those windows the same way

>> right there you see that grate, that would be as far as he could get. they opened one up below that earlier today. they're really closing off his options, making sure he has no exit path and can't go up the side of the building. >> i wonder if we're going to see the little pane to the left of the officer's shoulder get removed too. if you remove the pane on the right of that, the corner, him from going anywhere. you're watching a special edition of eyewitness news at 6:00. same has been at eyewitness news at 5:00 and most of 4:00. this young man during the 4:00 hour starting to ascend from the middle of the trump tower in midtown manhattan. 56th street and 5th avenue.

jim dolan has been watching it on the right of the screen. we have a very good shot of this young man, clearly an experienced climber as you see those suction cups. he's using four. each connected to a brightly colored -- i don't know what kind of material it is but very strong. because it's holding his weight. he screws that cylinder one at a time. >> it's very strenuous. the web on this. these kinds of suction cups. when you tighten that, it actually pushes the air in and vacuum packs the air in. then he's got to slide it off. he'll use that little device on the right, put it in, then screw it. he's pumping it up right now. he'll tighten it up. it creates a very strong vacuum. enough to hold his weight. >> he apparently started climbing from the subroof garden. we saw shots earlier of the area. and he began to make his way

he had a laptop computer and it apparently fell at some point and then he had a note pad that he was briefly showing to the window trying to give people the message of all this. we still don't know what the point is to this climb but even still he's pressing on. this happened shortly after 4:00. we're now two hours in to this cat and mouse game. >> who's the cat and who's the mouse at this point? >> right? >> this is the big cat right now. nypd elite esu units, emergency services unit, trying to coax him in. having a conversation. he's a little far to have a real conversation now. it's very loud up there. they're removing another window. this guy is not going to be able to go very far. the little windows -- >> you hope not. >> i don't know if they'll remove the windows or not. bill, we're just learning that jim dolan has new information

>> they're now opening up other windows, using suction cups. they seem to have this exit sealed. there is a plan if they need to go to it to lower emergency services workers by rope to him to pull him in but they don't think they'll have to go to that. they think this is the way in. he's moving laterally now, not fully aware his path is pretty blocked. they now know how to open the windows without breaking them. i don't know if you can see the lighted windows to the right, you can see the workers are there. they're applying the suction cups. they're blocking his path, making it apparent to them that

out of that window. they're talking to him right there. that's it. and he's right below that. they're talking to them. they're saying your options are running out, you might as well come in. >> you can see him looking around. he's trying to decide what am i going to do next? am i going to give up or keep climbing to the trying to talk him down, actively negotiating with him. but the whole key at this point, they wanted to try to safely isolate him. they want to make sure they don't do anything that's going to put this climber's life at risk. >> or any of their own workers. they also don't want to put any of their own workers' lives at risk. that's what he's doing by this stunt. he's putting emergency service

their lives for this city, he's putting their lives in danger as well as his own life. trying to make sure nobody gets hurt here, not him and not the police officers of the city. >> very good point. these guys are putting their lives at risk. this guy has suction cups. the emergency service workers, they're not tethered in to anything. i take that back. that guy has a tether around him right now. putting their lives at risk trying to get this young man out of there. he's taking off his backpack right now. >> you see him taking off his backpack. >> probably getting out a drink of water. we've only seen one in the last hour and 40 minutes. >> he's trying to grab something. oh, he's drinking water. >> if you have to go, watching eyewitness news at 6:00, oh, did he just drop the bottle?

landing down below there. if you want to get the other news of the day, we have it on the website. if you have to leave the house, no problem. get on your phone and watch facebook live. we have it on our facebook page. more than 110,000 of you are watching right now. we'll stay with it until this thing ends. >> if you have to go, you certainly don't want to go anywhere near east 56th. traffic is at a standstill there. 5th avenue is shut down in the area. but gridlock. >> n.j. burkett is there at the scene with the bystanders who have gathered to watch all this. >> literally hundreds of people watching this chess game unfold on the side of a new york city skyscraper. it's just been extraordinary. people have stood here for two hours because they can't take

what's going on here. you've been here since the very beginning. >> yeah, we have been. police started showing up. we stopped and looked at it. initially he held up a sign. you didn't see it. when they took that window out of the frame, erupted from the people pointing up, looking up, anxious to know was this going to be it? were the officers going to rappel down and pick him up off the building. obviously you'll see they were waiting for him to get up to where they are and perhaps they're pull him in. he keeps shifting to the left, shifting to the right, clearly

t it's going to come to an end but what everyone here is wondering is when is that going to happen? it hasn't happened. that's sort of the point. >> they're not taking any chances. they'll try to coax him down and not try to force him down but he may have nowhere to go. right now we want to break away. we're going to keep this picture going though. in for lee goldberg tonight to give us an idea of what we can expect in terms of weather tonight. before you give us the picture for all of us, tell us about the weather that may impact this situation here. you said rain is likely to not move in. >> right. showers and thunderstorms are a threat for tonight. looking across the area, looking specifically midtown manhattan and east 56th, not looking for a shower that's eminent. we've zoomed in on the radar and shown you the block area.

idea of what's happening around the area. we pull it out, we add the clouds to it. certainly overcast and darkening skies especially as we get closer and closer to sunset tonight. much of the activity has been off to the east. the more severe storms that were earlier on long island has pushed off but wow, what a display they left behind. we got tweets coming in saying rain came down so hard that residents who have lived there their whole lives haven't seen it rain we got this picture from john. you can see in the background a wedge shape in the background potentially indicating that not only was there a funnel cloud but if this touched the surface and brought up debris, it could have brought a tornado. heat advisory goes until saturday night at 8 p.m. for everybody else it's all about the hot weather. temperatures still 80s in new york city. we've got temperatures near 90

today. belmar had 90. toms river, 94. one of the hottest spots. the heat index, that feels-like temperature has been very serious. you'll notice spots showing up, blue dots on the map. this futurecast telling us there's a spotty chance for a shower. if anything was to happen in midtown, it would maybe be a spotty shower that doesn't last more than a few minutes. a drenching downpour, doesn't soon. widely scattered thunderstorms. that risk will be in play friday afternoon. saturday and sunday are both days where we could see showers and thunderstorms. we're expecting 73 tonight. tomorrow temperatures will be in the 80s to near 90 degrees. the real feel temperature will be 100. that is the pattern for the next several days. hot and sticky, oppressive heat. temperature at 94 on saturday. that's the hottest we're expecting in the city. no cooling down early next week.

but the humidity certainly does stick. that's a look at the forecast. >> this is pretty dramatic what's about to happen. this young man has no idea that there's a scaffolding, if we pull out the shot a little bit, look at that. around the corner there's a window washing scaffolding right there. so he's not going anywhere. and he does not yet know it. the trump organization issuing this statement: this man performed a ridiculous and dangerous stunt. there is damage to the building and he caused unnecessary new york's finest to protect the safety of everyone in the building. he caused the shutdown of traffic on 5th avenue. i'm 100% certain the nypd has better things to do. if mr. trump was here, says the executive vice president of the trump organization, he'd be thanking law enforcement for the job they are doing. you can see the members of the nypd, esu, have taken out a couple windows. they broke a window several floors down.

young man or not? jim dolan is on the ground watching what we're watching as well. i don't think this guy knows there's a window washing scaffolding 10 feet away from it. >> he may be aware as he started a new conversation. it appears they're going to let him move off to the left but then they can move the scaffolding up and the emergency service workers who are in the bucket the scaffolding from that angle. it's just a matter of time and won't be a long time now ub till his exits are totally blocked and he has to come in. >> it's slow going. we're now going beyond two hours now. this man slowly making had his way up the trump towers.

the 19th, 20th floor? >> about the bottom of the 20th floor. we know he was on the 19th floor a short while ago. he moved up a little bit from that point. he just saw the scaffolding. he's talking with the emergency service workers in that scaffolding. he's seeing he can't move laterally to his left. and he's trying to make a decision as to what's going to happen next. >> he's pretty much pinned in at this point. >> if he moved to his left, emergency service workers in the scaffolding can pull him down safely and that's of course what everybody wants. they don't want anybody to get hurt here. these are police officers,

and is climbing this building. we don't want him to get hurt but emergency service workers are out there. literally hanging in a bucket risking their lives because of this. >> it appears that talking isn't helping at all because he's still using one suction cup after another to make his way up and looks like he's trying to decide which way to go. he's looking where we can see the esu unit and scaffold. cops have been trying to talk his way down, actively negotiating with him. they've been trying to get to him safely but so far, they're so close. >> there's just one pane of glass. one narrow pane of glass he

he'll have to go right past emergency workers. that's on the 21st floor. that window, emergency service workers are going to put out blankets so he can safely get in if he chooses to do that. it looks like they may be rappelling down to get him. it's just a shame that they have to do they have to risk their lives to get this guy and protect public safety down below. safety. >> it looked like he just removed a piece of the furniture, desk or whatever it is on the bottom to make room for him. that's a big guy on the left. he made room by removing that. we were playing cat and mouse game. now we do know the mouse is trapped between the window

him. even if he stays on the single panel, it seems to be about two feet wide. it does appear to be some sort of desk unit. that white board right there, looks apparently like some sort of shelving unit with a light underneath it. they've removed part of that. will the cop try to get him? talked to the retired detective would try to get him, just too risky but it does look they're preparing to do something. they're certainly trying and as you look at the scaffolding on the left, they're having communications with the other nypd emergency services unit who are hanging out of the window. they're just trying to box him

moments ago that those units on the 21st floor are actually going to rappel down the building. oh, now we just saw on the left, that scaffolding is beginning to move up. it's inching its way up. at some point they want to try to get to him and get him safely. as he goes up, they're going to move up with him concurrently to get right at his feet so he can't slide over and start doing that as well. >> look what time it is. it's 6:26. we're stretching in to two and a half hours. this is something that's gone on for quite some time. he's got to be tired. no doubt. >> we are, by the way, in about two and a half minutes, make it three and a half minutes, going to join world news with david muir. we're going to continue to have this on our facebook live page,

live as this drama takes place at trump tower, 56th and midtown. >> it looks like they have something hanging, almost like a hook. you wonder if they are giving it to him. if he's giving up. >> they'll offer it to him. to be grabbing that. because he could have already. >> he's slowly making his way up. that scaffolding is on his left-hand side. and above him they've got that rope hanging down, hoping that he takes hold of it and bring this to an end. >> jim, are you watching this, jim dolan? >> we are. they are definitely lowering some kind of harness to him, something he can hook to the harness that he has, whether he takes it or not is of course an

next couple minutes. he's still ascending the building. they have offered him this device to attach to the harness he's wearing and again he has few options here but we'll see what he decides to do. if he continues to go up this pane of glass that he's on right now, he's got to go past that guy, that big police officer in the window who's dangling this, who's offering this tether to him. and we'll see whether they try to pull him in. that's definitely not the preferred way to do this. on the other hand they can't keep risking people's lives. >> he would have already grabbed that. we're going to stay on this, ladies and gentlemen, and join world news when this is over but we want to keep with this. he has every chance in the world to grab that rope, esu officer is holding for him and he's not doing it. the big question now if he goes up another 4 feet, is that guy

grab him or not? that's very risky. n.j. burkett is on the ground as well. >> the whole thing is about the safety of this climber. that's why they've been very, very steadfast in making sure they're not moving too quickly. we're seeing this negotiation play out here. they're talking to this climber right now whose name is apparently steve from virginia. this has now been two and a half the trump towers. 58-story trump towers. he's now on the 21st approaching the 22nd floor. we've heard from the trump organization giving a statement saying basically he's putting people's lives at risk. >> abc news confirming from a police source the climber is carrying leaflets, there's no

once in custody, the charges will be all likely reckless endangerment and trespass and several other counts. but police are saying there's no reason the secret service will become involved. apparently there's no intent, he's not giving up. he's one determined climber. this is the real moment of truth. >> and finally he's actually -- he can just be grabbed right now by one of those officers. >> it will be a little risky. >> he's right in arm's reach. he's still moving forward. and you can see the ropes of the scaffolding on the left sort of move a bit. trying to box this climber in at this point. >> from your vantage point, listening to what jim says and your own experience here, they're going to try to rope him? is that what's going to try to