Around 800 American families lost power in their homes in Utah after a woman climbed a substation transformer in Salt Lake City Wednesday morning. The authorities had no choice but to shut down the power supply in order to save the woman from getting electrocuted, reports said.
The episode came to an end when Salt Lake City Police personnel who arrived at the spot shot the woman with non-lethal rounds before taking her to a hospital. The person was not mentally sound, the first responders later confirmed.
The woman, whose acts were caught on camera, smashed a circuit box and a pipe during her transformer climb. She also damaged a control panel at the substation shortly before 11 am, US media reports claimed officials as saying.
According to an eyewitness, he noticed two police vehicles under the transformer first. Trying to figure out what the cops were staring upwards at, he spotted the woman, who was abusing the cops. Later, more police vehicles reached the spot and a crowd started building.
WATCH THE VIRAL VIDEO HERE:
The woman kept screaming the world was no safe place for her or her yet-to-be-born children, Yahoo News said. As she showed no sign of listening to negotiators, the police team started placing cherry pickers around her. By then, the electricity officials were asked to cut the power until the police were able to take the person out of the substation.
When the cherry pickers came up, the relentless woman started kicking them and grabbed onto a wire, climbing it like a “vine.” Videos showed the police trying to reason with her while she tried to move along the wire.
When she stepped onto the rim of a cherry picker, a police officer decided enough is enough and shot a less lethal weapon at her. However, the reports couldn't confirm if it was a stun gun or a rubber gun. When she refused to get inside the cherry picker to avoid getting shot again, there was no hesitation from the Salt Lake City police personnel who shot her again.
The "climber" collapsed, eyewitnesses told the media. She was in pain but was okay, talking non-stop and crying as she was put on a stretcher to be transported to a hospital by the cops.