New York Man Evades Police By Spending 2 Days In A Tree: 'This Is Something He Does All The Time'

New York City police officers were in hot pursuit of a suspect and it led them into a tree. Literally.

On Wednesday, police in Queens were called to answer a disturbance at a home on 145th Avenue in Brookville on a report that a 44-year-old man was currently threatening the caller, who was identified as his mother by ABC 7. When police arrived, the man made a dash for the roof to escape them.

With police on the chase, the man made a desperate leap to a nearby tree and has refused to climb down. Officers did not go up after the suspect in fear that the man could hurt himself after he threatened to jump from it, according to Fox 5.

Now, two days later the suspect remains atop the tree and shows no signs that he is ready to come down.

"This is something that he does all the time," said NYPD Chaplain Dr. Reba Perry to ABC 7. "He gets in the tree. It's not unusual for him to be in the tree. He's from Haiti. They climb trees."

The suspect’s name has not been released to the public, but he has been described as someone with a past criminal conviction and an active warrant for punching a 50-year-old woman in a car with him on Sept. 30. He has shouted at police negotiators that he does not want to go back to jail, claiming that he was abused in his last stint behind bars three years ago.

Police say that the man appears to be trying to negotiate his freedom as a condition for climbing down. The NYPD confirmed to the New York Post that the man will be arrested when he comes down from the tree based on the assault warrant.

Dr. Perry, the NYPD chaplain, said that the man has come down from the tree five times but he hasn't eaten in over a day. They warned that the current situation is "unstable".

The NYPD has deployed negotiators in a bid to persuade the man to safely come down and cleared the street to make room for him but to no avail. They have since turned to others in the community for help, including a priest, hospital workers and even the man’s brother for help.