Man falls to his death from Los Angeles port crane after police standoff

[August 17, 2017]    LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A man fell to his death on Wednesday at the Port of Los Angeles after he led police on a chase before he climbed a crane where he stripped, danced and did acrobatics during a hours-long standoff, local media reported.

Police began chasing a SUV that was reported stolen near the Los Angeles suburb of Mid-City at about 3:50 p.m. and then through Long Beach and into the Wilmington neighborhood, an local ABC news affiliate reported.

The driver bailed from the vehicle at the Port of Los Angeles and then climbed a crane. He spent hours atop the structure, stretching, doing handstands, dangling and eventually taking off his clothes as police negotiators tried to talk him down before he fell, ABC 7 in Los Angeles reported.

Police said in an alert that the man, who was not identified, fell 160 feet (50 m) to his death a little after 8 p.m.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles, Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Toby Chopra)

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