French tourist Yonathan Souid, 23, speaks to the media outside the Criminal Court in Brooklyn, New York. (Agence France-Presse)
A French tourist was just trying to get a better vantage point to take sweeping city photos when he walked out onto the beams over traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge, his lawyer said on Monday.
Yonathan Souid, 23, of Esnandes, France, was charged on Monday with reckless endangerment and criminal trespass. He posted bail and was released and must surrender his passport. Prosecutors say Souid climbed over a fence on the bridge's pedestrian walkway around noon on Sunday. He was standing on beams connected to the tower on the Manhattan side.
The daredevil feat comes several months after two German artists scaled both towers of the Brooklyn Bridge and switched its American flags for white flags and a Russian tourist separately climbed to the top of the famed span to take pictures.
Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson said such conduct is dangerous and won't be tolerated, and said he is seeking jail time.
Souid was in town for a religious conference and had been in the city a little over a week, scheduled to head home on Sunday before his stunt. His attorney James Medows says he must postpone his education now, while he waits for the case to be resolved. He described Souid as simply a clueless tourist unaware of what the act meant in a post-9/11 New York, and said he was only trying to get a good photo. He never snapped the picture - police arrested him too quickly.
On July 22, two American flags were swiped from the bridge and replaced with white ones, prompting security concerns. Two German artists took credit for the stunt. A month later, a Russian tourist climbed to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge to take pictures and was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment, trespassing and disorderly conduct. According to a criminal complaint, he said he did it for fun.
In response, security was beefed up around the bridge. The NYPD and the Department of Transportation were working to install a network of cameras and sensors along the bridges' towers, according to city officials.
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer of New York proposed a federal law last month that carries up to five years in prison for scaling prominent national structures such as the World Trade Center, Statue of Liberty and Golden Gate Bridge. His proposed maximum sentence of five years is a considerable jump from the one year in New York City's trespassing law.