Downtown streets blocked for police activity

Update 3:45 p.m.: A number of downtown Evanston streets around the Sherman Plaza complex were blocked off for police activity for more than two hours this afternoon.

Update 3:45 p.m.: A number of downtown Evanston streets around the Sherman Plaza complex were blocked off for police activity for more than two hours this afternoon.

Police say a woman had been threatening to jump from the top floor of the 12-story parking garage. The incident was first reported about 1:30 p.m. and police finally succeeded in persuading the woman to leave with officers at 3:42 p.m. She was taken to a local hospital for a mental evaluation.

Davis Street blocked by police vehicles at Sherman Avenue.

Benson Avenue, Davis Street and northbound Sherman Avenue were all blocked in the area. The Benson Avenue exit from the Davis Street CTA station was also closed and some bus service was been rerouted.

During the long impasse, police arranged for the woman to speak by phone with her husband, who had arrived at the scene.

After two incidents in November 2013 in which a man jumped to his death from the Sherman Plaza garage and a woman died after jumping from the Maple Avenue garage, aldermen considered installing suicide nets or some other barriers at the garages. But they rejected the idea as being too costly and not likely to actually deter such incidents.

In another incident a man either jumped or fell from the Sherman Plaza garage in October 2015. And a year ago Alderman Judy Fiske, 1st Ward, renewed her call for fencing on the Sherman Plaza garage roof, saying that residents of the neighboring condominium tower frequently complain of seeing young people sitting on the four-foot parapet wall atop the garage.