Man dies after trying to elude police using bedsheets out window

ByEyewitness News WABC logo
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
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NEW YORK -- A Brooklyn man died when he tied bedsheets together and tried to escape from an 11th floor window after police arrived to question him about a livery car robbery.

Jamel Chandler, 21, tied the sheets together to escape his friend's apartment in the Ingersoll Houses in Fort Greene around 6 p.m. Tuesday, police said. But the cloth fell when he was around the seventh floor.

Chandler was pronounced dead at Brooklyn Hospital.

He was a suspect in the robbery of a livery car driver, and had just finished a prison sentence, apparently for an ongoing robbery pattern. Chandler had 29 prior arrests.

Detectives are investigating whether Chandler posted a six-minute video on Facebook before his attempted escape, declaring his intention to flee out the window and urging viewers to watch.

Police officers were not in the apartment when Chandler climbed out. Another person in the apartment was taken into custody in connection with the livery car robbery.