A screenshot of Sanchez’s livestream on top of the Queensboro Bridge (via Smooth Sanchez IRL youtube)
Oct. 23, 2020 By Allie Griffin
A teenage daredevil scaled the Queensboro Bridge Thursday evening and livestreamed the stunt to an audience watching online.
Malik Sanchez, 18, climbed up onto a support beam of the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge — high above rush hour traffic below — just before 5 p.m., police said.
The teen, who lives in Manhattan, was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment, criminal trespassing and unlawful possession of noxious matter. He had pepper spray on him which he handed over to officers, police said.
Sanchez streamed the whole climb and police standoff on Youtube under the username “Smooth Sanchez IRL.”
He walked onto the bike and pedestrian pathway of the bridge on the north outer roadway and then climbed up a side support of the bridge to the upper roadway. From there, Sanchez scaled one of the horizontal beams towering high above cars passing below.
“This has been the time of my life,” Sanchez said as he scaled the beams. “I do this for fun.”
Viewers sent money to Sanchez during livestream as he climbed higher and higher. An automated voice played the donors’ comments — that were mostly vulgar and offensive — during the stream.
Sanchez spoke to his viewers during the climb.
“One wrong step and I could really fall through these cracks, but it will be a worthful [sic] death,” he said to the camera. “If I do fall, I will fall and I will laugh all the way down.”
Police officers showed up during the livestream after a 911 caller reported seeing a man scaling the Queensboro Bridge.
Halting traffic for hours during rush hour is never a good idea
Our #ESU members will always be there to ensure that these situations get resolved safely
Extremely dangerous conditions today on the Queensboro Bridge#NYPDProtecting all citizens of #NYC, 24/7, no matter what pic.twitter.com/F84ci9VbGj
— NYPD Special Ops (@NYPDSpecialops) October 23, 2020
“[I] just wanted a better view, but now of course police arrived and sabotaged my plan,” Sanchez said as the NYPD arrived on scene.
He sat down across the beam with his ankles crossed nonchalantly as an officer from the NYPD’s highly trained Emergency Services Unit scaled the bridge.
“This would suck if I get arrested, right?” Sanchez said.
He then addressed his mother and family members and asked them to access the livestream donations through his PayPal account.
“If I do get arrested, access this and get the King back out in New York please,” Sanchez said, referring to himself.
Sanchez told officers he appreciated them and is not suicidal. He appeared to cooperate with the officer, who brought him down safely.
He was taken to Cornell Hospital for psychiatric evaluation before being discharged and arrested, police said.
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19 Comments
With the pandemic and the lockdown so many people especially the youth are desperate to make friends socialize and stand out. A like on social media is like a natural high for them.
he probably would have done it anyway
So some selfish kid got paid by other selfish kids to risk his life and disrupt the evening commute for thousands of New Yorkers who were just trying to get home to their families after a long day of work. All the money he “made” during this stunt should go to a charity and he shouldn’t get a CENT for bail money, if it even came to that. I was stuck in this traffic for an hour trying to get home. I thought we were screwed before, but if this is how the next generation is going to think/act we are in a lot of trouble.
The economy is so bad. People are desperate to make money and pay bills. Yes he went to the extreme but times are tough. I had to sell my jewelry to pay rent and bills. I blame the economy and poverty for the rise in shootings crime mental outbreaks and overall decline in quality of life. We need help.
Instead of RAISING their children!!! I don’t even care about them earning money to spend food on anymore!!! Just give a damn about the life you brought into this world!!!
Seems like an attention seeking online streamer pushing norms and boundaries.
This guy was on the news before for trolling people on youtube. He was streaming live and asking random white people to kneel in honor of the george floyds protests in NYC.
Black lives matter!
Of which he is not. So he has nothing to say about it.
Of Floyd was alive after the incident, guaranteed he would not thank anyone who was protesting or BLM screaming.
Kudos to the Sunnyside Post for discouraging this kind of behavior by posting the photo of him on the bridge and linking to his youtube video! Maybe link to his instagram too, and start a gofundme account for him to ensure that no one else tries this stupid stunt. This is the kind of socially responsible “journalism” we need!
WHAAAAAAT…there’s a TJ Maxx on 59th Street at the foot of the bridge?!
There was a food emporium right underneath the bridge ramp, too! Closed now but it’s pretty awesome to see.
Tj maxx is below ground like the apple store on 5th Ave.
He should have just told the cops he was just shooting a scence for the new Spiderman movie. Film crews get away with anything they want in this town.
He would make a great recast for a spiderman movie ?. My teenage children have seen his live streams and videos. He is popular online.
This is a daily reminder of what our police have to deal with. Thanks to De Blasio and the city council NYC residents have to deal with idiots like this every day. Kids like this do what ever they want because they know there are no consequences to their actions.
Mind you.
This kind of lack of upbringing bleeds into the classroom every day. Even now.
I object to referring to this young man as a “daredevil.” That romanticizes his stunt and makes it sound “cool” and potentially appealing to others. He put his own life in danger, which was bad enough, but then he also could have created a dangerous condition for others. He is not a “daredevil,” he is reckless, inconsiderate, and heedless of life–his own and maybe even others’.
Make him pay for his choices JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD!!!
Except his mother. She should pay the city back for the BS she created by not raising her son to be a productive member of society.
So this guy gets arrested for reckless endangerment, but street racers who are bound to kill/hospitalize someone uninvolved in their stupidity are not… ok…
More like a joker than a king