Man Found Hanging from Fruitvale Bridge Thursday Morning, Apparent Suicide

Police say a man found hanging from the Miller-Sweeny (Fruitvale) Bridge this morning was likely a suicide.

A bridge mechanic coming to work just before 7 a.m. Thursday spotted a body dangling from the bridge, he said.

At first he hoped it was dummy, someone playing a bad joke. But when he got closer he saw it was a man, maybe in his 50s or 60s, he said.

"I was driving down Alameda Avenue, the road that goes by Home Depot, and I saw him and did a double take," said the mechanic, who declined to be named. "I thought it was maybe someone playing a bad joke. But we investigated and saw it was a body and called the police."

The man was hanging on the Alameda side of the bridge facing east.

Alameda Police Department Spokesman Lt. Bill Scott his department got the call from a bridge tender just after 7 a.m. The Alameda Police worked with Alameda firefighters to lower the body into a Coast Guard boat below.

"It took awhile for us to get the body down because we didn’t want to pull him up and risk injuring ourselves," said Scott. "So the Fire Department hooked a harness onto the guy and we lowered him to the boat, and they took him to the Grand Street Marina."

The Alameda County Corner has not yet released a cause of death, and while signs point to suicide, the police are conducting an investigation, which includes looking at surveillance videos to see if the man came onto the bridge alone. 

Scott says the man likely died after 2:08 a.m., when the bridge was last raised, and presumably the body would have been seen, and when it was spotted by the mechanic this morning.

“We don’t know for sure it's a suicide, but all indications are," said Scott. 

UPDATED: A spokesman from the Alameda County Coronor's office said Monday that the .