Jackson Perry
On Sunday afternoon, a man unaffiliated with the University fell off the Leavey Center bridge, after allegedly shoplifting textbooks from the University bookstore.
According to Joseph Smith, associate director for the Department of Public Safety, the suspect had shoplifted two textbooks, each valued at $177. Smith said he dropped a duffel bag containing the textbooks over the side of the bridge before climbing over the bridge wall. The suspect did not attempt to jump directly off the bridge, but rather tried unsuccessfully to climb down it before falling.
“Witnesses on the scene at the time stated that they saw the subject dangling from the bridge before falling,” Smith wrote in an e-mail. “When DPS [officers] arrived on the scene, the subject who had fallen was being attended to by GERMS personnel.”
Robert Byrne (COL ’11), who witnessed GERMS attending to the subject and DPS taking information from witnesses at the scene, said the suspect was attempting to convince those around him to let him go.
“He had been saying he was hit by a car, but people were holding him down because he had just stolen books from the bookstore,” Byrne said.
According to Byrne and Smith, the suspect was taken to Georgetown University Hospital in an ambulance.
“His legs were all contorted and everything so it was very clear they were broken,” Byrne said.
Georgetown University Hospital personnel were unavailable for comment.
No MPD Police Report was available at the time of publication. According to Second District Officer Thomas Magruder, MPD is currently modifying the report and is thus unable to release it.
