Community Corner

Man Threatening Suicide Causes 7-Hour Freeway Shutdown

The man, who surrendered to police on state Route 163 at University Avenue about 8:40 p.m. Friday night, was arrested.

1. A frustrated medical marijuana activist who walked onto a freeway overpass in the city of San Diego, holding up traffic for nearly seven hours because police feared he might jump, was eventually taken into custody and to a mental hospital, police said Saturday. The man, who surrendered to police on state Route 163 at University Avenue about 8:40 p.m. Friday night, was arrested, but no booking information was made public. He was believed to be held involuntarily for a 72-hour psychiatric examination. Traffic backed up on southbound 163 as far as the Interstate 805 split, I-805 backed up to state Route 56 and Interstate 8 was jammed from Interstate 5 to the 805, while authorities tried to persuade the man to give up.

2. Scuffles broke out Friday among police and protesters taking part in the week-old "Occupy San Diego" protest at Civic Center Plaza, with officers arresting two members of the demonstration and pepper-spraying about a half-dozen others. The disturbances at the previously peaceful rally against perceived societal, government and corporate misdeeds erupted in the late morning as authorities tried to get the crowd of several hundred to fully comply with an order to remove all camping equipment, tables, signs and other paraphernalia from the C Street concourse.

3. A Navy SEAL stationed in Coronado died in a motorcycle accident in Indonesia, U.S. Navy officials announced Friday. Michael Tathem, 33, died Wednesday in Bali, where he was on rest and recuperation leave. He was scheduled to return to Afghanistan, where he had been on forward deployment as part of operation Enduring Freedom. Read the full story on .

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