Police cleared in death of woman who jumped from Oshawa parking garage roof
Published May 31, 2021 at 9:24 pm
Durham Region Police’s Special Investigative Unit (SIU) Unit have cleared officers who were on the scene February 21 when a 24 year-old woman jumped to her death from the roof of the parking garage at 1 Mary Street in downtown Oshawa.
Police responded to several calls about a person on the garage’s rooftop just before two p.m. When officers arrived, they found the woman “standing precariously” on the edge of the rooftop, seven floors above the pavement below. The woman had been on the same rooftop the day before contemplating suicide, according to the report from the SIU, who stated she was “despondent with the recent breakdown of a relationship.”
On that occasion, a responding police officer – the same officer who was on the scene this day – had managed to persuade her to accompany him to hospital where she was admitted for a 72-hour mental health assessment.
It isn’t stated in the report how the woman was able to check out of the facility only 24 hours later, but police are investigating.
The following day when police responded to the 9-1-1 calls, they found the woman standing on the cap of a pillar on the north-east corner of the roof. The officer slowly approached the woman and tried to talk her to safety.
The woman recognized the officer and told him she had “chickened out” the day before, but that she would follow through on this occasion. The officer offered her his right hand a couple of times, but she refused to take it. She implored the officer to look away so he would not have to see her jump.
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About five minutes into their interaction, the woman, while facing the officer, removed her backpack and proclaimed, “I’m going to jump,” after which she appeared to lose her balance off the cap and fell backwards from the building. She fell 24 metres to the ground.
Paramedics were on the scene quickly, but the woman was pronounced dead at 2:25 p.m.
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