One of the guys on my boyfriends car forum saw this happen. Said people were yelling for him to jump.
http://sfist.com/2010/02/17/man_leaps_to_his_death_off_forever.php
A man wearing only underwear got out on a ledge yesterday afternoon at 10 Cyril Magnin (the building at the base of Powell that was formerly a big Bank of America and now is a Forever 21 with lofts up above) and took a leap to his death near the cable car turnaround before hostage negotiators could reach him.
Police Lt. Lyn Tomioka said, "It was too quick. By the time they got there, determined the doors were locked, they couldn't make any contact with him."
He was pronounced dead at the scene at around 3:25 p.m. The police are saying they don't know whether the man lived or worked in the building, but from the sound of the situation (and the underwear thing) we're going to venture that he was one of the condo dwellers, and the locked door in question was the door to his home.
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Suicide-draws-crowd-at-Powell-and-Market-84529987.html
SAN FRANCISCO — A man wearing only a pair of turquoise boxers jumped to his death from a ledge above Forever 21 on Powell Street on Tuesday.
The man attracted a crowd near the busy Powell Street cable car turnaround before jumping, according to witnesses. He apparently crawled out a window from what police are describing as a loft apartment above the store.
Witnesses reported seeing the man start to jump twice and then stop himself at the last second, before he finally made the jump.
Police spokeswoman Lt. Lyn Tomioka said a dispatcher started receiving calls about the man around 3:10 p.m. Police arrived and stopped pedestrian traffic in the area by 3:15 p.m., and a hostage negotiator arrived at 3:18 p.m., she said.
The negotiator tried to reach the man, but he had locked the door from the inside.
The man jumped at 3:25 p.m., she said. Less than 30 seconds later, paramedics determined he had no vital signs and pronounced him dead.
Because of its location, the ordeal was witnessed by a large crowd that documented it extensively on Twitter.
San Francisco resident Terence Prasad said he walked by the scene before the man jumped and heard some people shouting at the man, “don’t jump!”
But others, he said, were shouting “Jump!”
“It was kinda messed up,” he said. “But at least he’s in a better place now.”
Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Suicide-draws-crowd-at-Powell-and-Market-84529987.html#ixzz0fqzH75ZY