A man clutching a guitar and a sign reading: ‘Free Billie Eilish‘ was arrested on trespassing charges after he climbed 30 feet up a 162-foot TV tower along Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.
The Los Angeles Fire Department was called to the scene around 6:30pm Tuesday after receiving a report about a man climbing the KTLA tower in the city. He has since climbed down.
The man, at one point, played his guitar. Officials have referred to him as a ‘protester,’ reports KTLA, but it is unclear what he is protesting. Since climbing up the tower, ‘Free Billie Eilish’ trended on Twitter.
A large inflatable airbag was placed below the man as emergency responders worked to bring him down safely.
Roads around the station’s headquarters were shut down. Power to the tower was shut off as crisis negotiators spoke with the man.
A man clutching a guitar and a sign reading: ‘Free Billie Eilish’ climbed by up a TV tower along Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. He climbed down the tower around midnight
He threw his guitar onto the inflatable before climbing down the 162-foot TV tower.
The man also had another message written on the back of his Eilish sign, reading: ‘MK ultra sex slaves Donald Marshall clones.’ It is unclear what he is referring to, but Marshall was a Canadian who became synonymous with wrongful conviction after he was incorrectly convicted of murder in 1971.
The man was sitting roughly 30 feet in the air and stayed there until after midnight, when he finally decided to come down.
The man was arrested on trespassing charges, according to CBS 8’s Malik Earnest.
The singer has not addressed the situation and is not currently incarcerated or in any legal trouble.
Many took to social media to question the man’s sign, with some asking what he wanted to free the Ocean Eyes singer from.
‘Free Billie Eilish, she ain’t do nothing,’ one Twitter user wrote.
‘This free Billie Eilish thing is the most random thing ever,’ another wrote.
‘Billie Eilish, sleeping peacefully as “FREE BILLIE EILISH” trends, not knowing she needs to be set free,’ another wrote.
He was arrested on trespassing charges after returning to the ground
Donald Marshall became synonymous with wrongful conviction after his murder sentence was overturned
Marshall was convicted of 17-year-old Sandy Seale’s murders in 1971 and wasn’t acquitted of the crime until 1987.
Shortly before midnight, Marshall, then-17, and Seale met by chance while walking Wentworth Park in Sydney, Nova Scotia, according to the Canadian Royal Commission.
They met two other men, Roy Ebsary, 59, and James ‘Jimmy’ MacNeil, 25. After meeting the two, Marshall and Seale tried to ‘panhandle’ them and an altercation occurred and Seale was stabbed in the stomach and later died.
Ebsary, who stabbed Seale, never admitted he did and police turned their focus on Marshall. Police suspected the 17-year-old had killed the other teen in a rage.
Marshall was convicted of the murder and spent 11 years after prosecutors painted a picture that him and Seale planned to rob Ebsary.
A decade later, another witness came forward and revealed they had seen someone else stab Seale and Ebsary was eventually tried and charged with manslaughter.
After receiving his freedom again and having his= conviction overturned, he became a symbol for the wrongly convicted.
SRC: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/
