Man Arrested After 4-Hour Police Standoff At Central Park Zoo, Police Say

CENTRAL PARK, NY — A man has been sent for a psychiatric evaluation after being arrested following a four-hour police standoff at the Central Park zoo, an NYPD spokesman told Patch.

The man, who has not been identified, entered a bird enclosure at the zoo Sunday afternoon and climbed up a 20-foot rock formation around 3:30 p.m., police said. Police attempted to talk the emotionally disturbed man down from the rock formation for four hours, an NYPD spokesman told Patch.

Around 7:30 p.m. the man finally agreed to come down from the rocks, police said. The man was placed under arrest and brought to New York Presbyterian hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, police told Patch.

Nobody was injured during the standoff, police said.

A spokesman for the Central Park zoo told the Daily News that the man had entered the zoo's indoor "Tropic Zone" enclosure — which is home to several types of birds, reptiles ruffed lemurs.

“No guests or animals were involved in the incident, and the zoo remained open,” zoo spokesman Max Pulsinelli told the Daily News.

Photo by Alan Light via Flickr/Creative Commons