Cheyenne man climbs down from bridge after five hours of negotiations, now in police custody

CHEYENNE — After five hours of negotiations, Cheyenne police were able to convince a local man to come down from the railroad bridge on West Lincolnway Friday afternoon.

The 47-year-old had been on top of the bridge, throwing rocks at vehicles.

The man, identified by police as Ronald Stringer, had climbed to the top of the bridge around 8:45 Friday morning. According to a news release, he was taken into custody and booked into the Laramie County jail for making terroristic threats, destruction of property, criminal entry and interference with a peace officer.

Initially, police negotiators and co-responders tried to talk with Stringer from the ground, according to the release. When that wasn’t effective, police officers and firefighters used a bucket truck to lift personnel to the top of the structure to better communicate with Stringer.

Stringer was asked to come down from the bridge, but repeatedly refused, which resulted in hours of negotiations prior to his compliance.

According to a CPD Facebook post, the incident posed no danger to the public. It did, however, lead to the closure of West Lincolnway from Westland Road to Missile Drive for several hours Friday.

Throughout the duration of the negotiations, pedestrians and people in their cars watched from the street; some even took photos and videos.

The nature of the incident prompted a multi-agency response from the Cheyenne Police Department, the Cheyenne Police/Laramie County Crisis Negotiation Team, Cheyenne Fire Rescue, the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center Co-Responder Team, Union Pacific Railroad and American Medical Response.

According to Wyoming Statute 6-2-505, “a person is guilty of a terroristic threat if he threatens to commit any violent felony with the intent to cause evacuation of a building, place of assembly or facility of public transportation, or otherwise to cause serious public inconvenience, or in reckless disregard of the risk of causing such inconvenience.”

According to Cheyenne Police, Stringer was charged with making terroristic threats, destruction of property, criminal entry and interference with a peace officer because of his actions during the negotiations.

He was specifically charged with terroristic threats because the Union Pacific railway was disturbed, and a serious public inconvenience was caused on a state highway. Police were unable to confirm what motivated Stringer to climb onto the bridge.