An unidentified man jumped rooftops to set fire to a cross on top of a church in Boyle Heights. The underwear clad man was detained by the police outside a residential building.
The video of the incident, which lasted several minutes, has gone viral on the social media, with many questioning the mental state of the man.
Man Lights Cross on Fire Before Jumping off to Another building
Quoting The Los Angeles Fire Department's Margaret Stewart, CBS Los Angeles reported that the LAFD responded to reports of a possible jumper who appeared "to be trying to light the building on fire" at St. Mary's Catholic Church in the 400 block of South Chicago Street at around 8:25 p.m.
Wearing underwear and one sock, the unidentified man was caught on several videos jumping from one roof to another. The man was spotted on top of a bell tower as he tried to start a fire. After lighting the cross on fire, he appeared to kick statue trying to knock it over.
At around 9:25 p.m., the man jumped from the church to an adjacent building and ran across its roof before jumping to another roof. He then grabbed a wire, which many believed was an electricity line, before climbing on to another structure.
Man Appeared Agitated and Ran Away from Light
The outlet reported that the LAPD stated that the man appeared to be agitated when the spotlight by the police chopper was shown on him. He also appeared to be running away from the light. It was only after the semi-naked man entered an evacuated building that he was detained by the cops. The outlet also reported that the man, who was taken to the local hospital by the cops, appeared to be alert and uninjured.
The social media was abuzz with the videos of the underwear clad man jumping from rooftops to rooftops. "Update just found out it's some fucken man jumping between rooftops like just a normal night in boyle heights ???" wrote a Twitter user.
Another user who shared the video on Reddit dubbed the assailant as 'Boyle Heights Ultimate Ninja Warrior'.
"Boyle heights is adjacent to skid row in dtla, likely where this man walked from, had a schizophrenic event & started a fire then jumped on building rooftops. LA News makes it a sideshow while casting dispersion on one of the oldest working class neighborhoods in LA," wrote another Twitter user.
"#BOYLE #HEIGHTS naked man YES it was an ELECTRIC HOUSE POWER LINE 240 VOLTS AC They are installed to handle that weight. That is why he did not fall this dude has some serious coo cooo problems," read another tweet.
