Calif. Man Jumps Off Freeway Ramp, Impales Self on Fence
--
Sept. 03--STOCKTON -- A 45-year-old man died of his injuries Friday afternoon after apparently jumping off a freeway connector ramp and impaling himself some 80 feet below on a spiked ornamental iron fence surrounding the Stockton Shelter for the Homeless.
No one reported seeing the man jump at 3:54 p.m. Friday, but 60 to 70 people were lined up next to the fence waiting to go into the homeless shelter and were horrified by what they witnessed.
"I heard a boom, and then there was dust everywhere," said Johnny Ramirez, 49, a client at the shelter. "He was sprawled out over the fence, on his back."
Police are calling the incident a suicide. It occurred in the 600 block of West Church Street below the connector ramp leading from northbound Interstate 5 to eastbound Highway 4.
Ramirez, who was standing about 5 feet from the fence when the unidentified man fell from the sky, said other shelter clients were sitting along the fence right underneath where the man landed. No one else was reported injured, but some were splattered with the victim's blood.
Daniel Scharff, 49, another witness, said he saw a hole in the man's arm that looked like it was caused by a bullet, but police did not report any weapons involved in the man's death.
Police, along with California Highway Patrol officers who managed traffic, were unsure how the man got to the elevated portion of the freeway ramp. No vehicle was found nearby, and no one had stepped forward to report a pedestrian on the freeway.
The first responders on the scene believed the man was already dead, but rescuers were able to revive him, according to police spokesman Pete Smith.
Stockton firefighters responding to the scene had to leave the man suspended on the 6-foot-high fence while they cut the iron posts in order to extricate him, Fire Department spokesman Michael Lilienthal said.
"We helped get him into the ambulance. It was challenging, because he was still impaled," Lilienthal said. At San Joaquin General Hospital in French Camp, emergency physicians requested firefighters' assistance in removing more metal from the man's body, Lilienthal said.
Dennis Buettner, an outreach worker with San Joaquin County's Behavioral Health Care Services who works with the homeless shelter, said several witnesses were quite shaken by what they saw.
"We're worried about the people who are going to be traumatized by this situation," Buettner said.
"It's shocking when you see him there in front of your face. I'm glad I didn't see him fall," Ramirez said.
The Record normally does not report on suicides but did in this case because of the public nature of the incident and the fact that substantial public funds were involved in the response to the emergency.
Contact reporter Joe Goldeen at (209) 546-8278 or jgoldeen@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/goldeenblog.
