The biggest concern was crossfire during weekend Narrows Bridge closure

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge closure over the weekend lasted much longer than usual because a person in crisis had a gun and few officers were available to direct traffic, a state police spokesperson said.

The route was closed for roughly four hours on Saturday night while state troopers and Tacoma police responded to the incident, which came after a man violated a domestic violence no-contact order in Tacoma and said he planned to harm himself on the bridge.

The person threatening self-harm was later arrested and charged with assaulting multiple officers, resisting arrest, and two firearms-related offenses, according to court documents. He was released after an arraignment on Monday and ordered to undergo mental health treatment.

During the closure, traffic was “pretty gridlocked,” Trooper Kameron Watts, a Washington State Patrol spokesperson, told The News Tribune in an interview.

“It happens really fast in that area,” he said.

After speaking with police on the bridge starting at around 8:25 p.m., the man allegedly pulled a firearm from his waistband and pointed it at officers, according to a police report. After they drew their service weapons and directed him to put the gun down, the man then pointed it at his own head, police said.

Officers attempted to negotiate with him and shut down traffic in the eastbound lane of the bridge as a SWAT team arrived on scene, according to the report. The man eventually dropped the gun and was taken into custody around midnight.

In addition to the charges from the bridge incident, he was also charged with stalking, intimidation, and violating a restraining order in connection with the earlier incident in the city, said Tacoma Police Department spokesperson Shelbie Boyd.

Even though suicide attempts are common on the bridge, Watts said, the risk to people’s safety from the gun was the main factor that caused the traffic backup.

“The situation was really unique,” he said, noting that he has never seen an armed person threatening self-harm since he started on the force in 2018.

“In most other circumstances we are able to get traffic turned away,” he said. “A lot of our resources were being used to mitigate this guy who had a firearm.”

Police had to create a buffer between the person and others on the highway in case his gun was discharged, Watts said.

“The biggest concern was crossfire,” he said.

Fewer officers were on duty to respond on a Saturday night as compared to on weekdays, he added, making traffic management at the time less of a priority than keeping the scene safe.

“Because of the amount of resources it took to bring it to a good ending where no one was hurt, it required everyone to focus on that situation,” he said. “It’s not like we could open up a lane, either, because it was an active situation involving firearms.”

Police on the ground explained the safety issue to waiting drivers, but didn’t give specifics about the presence of a gun, Watts said. That is standard practice to reduce the risk of word getting out online to people who aren’t involved in the scene, he said.

“If I start mentioning firearms, or get too detailed, it’s going to bring more interest to people who are not in the [traffic] backup,” he said.

As police took control of the closure, the Washington State Department of Transportation sent out alerts via its website and app, department spokesperson Cara Mitchell told The News Tribune. They also displayed the closure on an eastbound SR-16 reader board, she said, though she noted that the display was some distance away from the bridge.

“You have to be able to get messaging out to travelers when an emergency like that comes up,” she said.

When the scene is not secure, safety is the “number one” priority, Mitchell said. There’s not always a way to control traffic disruptions during such unpredictable events besides communication, she added.

“We never know how long these things are going to last,” she said. “Some of them can last 10 minutes; others, like what happened Saturday night, can last up to four hours.”

Commenters on a social media post from the scene largely expressed concern for the man’s mental health and said the delay was worth his safety. His mother later set up an online campaign asking for donations to help cover bills and other costs while he was in treatment, calling him a “brother, a father, and a good friend to many.” “He deserves the opportunity to focus on himself and his mental health while he is in the hospital,” she wrote.