Woman brought to safety after threatening to jump from Rock Hill bell tower

Much of downtown Rock Hill was blocked Wednesday afternoon after a woman climbed a church bell tower and threatened to jump.

The woman was safely removed from the First Presbyterian Church tower at about 4 p.m. after nearly two hours of negotiations with officers, said Mark Bollinger, spokesman for the Rock Hill Police Department. Authorities said she appeared to be in her 20s, but her exact age was not known Wednesday.

Officials have not yet said how the woman was able to get into the five-story church tower or get up the stairwell. Church officials declined to comment.

East Main, East Black, Elizabeth and Saluda streets were closed during the incident.

First Presbyterian sits at the intersection of Main and Saluda streets, across the street from Fountain Park. It is surrounded by several businesses, including banks, lawyers offices, shops and restaurants.

The situation was called in to police around 2:10 p.m., and officers quickly responded to the scene to try to talk the woman down.

“Basically all of downtown is shut down,” Bollinger said at the time of the negotiations.

Bystander Justin Brown watched the incident for an hour. He was happy when the woman was brought out safely.

“Things can sometimes seem bad,” he said, “but not so bad that there isn’t help.”

The incident drew small but curious groups of people who generally stayed for only a few minutes. Many people working construction in the area and from downtown businesses came outside to see what was going on.

Betsy and Hugh Rock, owners of the Overhead Station gift shop a block from the church, expressed concern for the woman’s safety as they and others from several businesses conducted business at First Citizens Bank next door to the church.

“Hopefully her parents or her family has been found,” Betsy Rock said.

Bollinger worked as a negotiator in hostage and potential suicide situations before becoming the department’s chief spokesman and media liaison.

The priority for police negotiators, he said, is to build rapport with someone who threatening to harm herself. Sometimes, he said, it can take hours to resolve a situation like the one that happened Wednesday.

This story was originally published September 2, 2015 at 3:14 PM with the headline "Woman brought to safety after threatening to jump from Rock Hill bell tower."