Retired Crisis Negotiator Discusses Tulsa Tower Standoff

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, Oklahoma -- It was a scene that riveted many viewers: retired Tulsa Police crisis negotiator Tyrone Lynn in a bucket truck talking down the man who spent 127 hours on an east Tulsa communications tower.

High above east Tulsa, the two men talked for seven hours before 25-year-old William Sturdivant willingly came down from the Clear Channel tower.

"I wanted to go in and establish a rapport," Lynn told The News On 6.

Lynn said that though he considered grabbing Sturdivant and pulling him into the rescue bucket, it was too risky that high in the air. So instead, the two men talked under a hot Oklahoma sun as several hundred thousand of people watched by live stream.

8/16/2011 Related Story: Tulsa Tower Standoff Ends After Man Surrenders

Lynn had Sturdivant go in and out of the bucket a few times as a sign of good faith that the young man could come down safely.

"He really wanted to, but he was afraid," Lynn said.

Lynn retired last year from the police department, but the 21-year veteran came back to do a job many are calling heroic.

Click on the video to watch the entire interview with Tyrone Lynn.