Coroner: Monroe man who jumped to death plunged knife in chest before chase

9/4/2013

A Monroe man who jumped to his death Saturday had pleaded with authorities to shoot him and plunged a knife into his chest before leading them on a chase that ended when he leaped from the Veterans’ Glass City Skyway, officials said today.

Shane Holey, 31, fell 125 feet to the ground near the Maumee River’s east bank between the Skyway and the parallel Craig Memorial Bridge and was pronounced dead at the scene at 6:10 p.m., according to Lucas County Deputy Coroner Dr. Diane Scala-Barnett, who performed an autopsy Tuesday.

The death was ruled a suicide and was caused by multiple blunt-force injuries suffered in the fall, with a clinical history of mental illness and a self-inflicted stab wound to the chest as contributing conditions, Dr. Scala-Barnett said.

The incident was reported Saturday to Monroe County Sheriff's Office deputies as a suicidal man with a knife, according to a police report.

Mr. Holey allegedly confronted law enforcement officers in the parking lot of a Kroger store in Monroe, pulled a hunting knife, and yelled to them to shoot him, Dr. Scala-Barnett said. He then plunged the knife into his chest and drove away, initiating a pursuit, she said.

A Toledo police cruiser joined in the pursuit after Mr. Holey’s vehicle entered Toledo on Lewis Avenue, then proceeded east on Alexis Road to southbound I-75.

After driving onto southbound I-280, police said, Mr. Holey attempted to drive the vehicle off the Skyway, causing it to strike the bridge’s side. When the vehicle did not go over the bridge, he jumped through the vehicle’s passenger window and over the side of the bridge, landing on rocks several yards from the Maumee’s East Toledo bank, according to police.

It is the first reported case of anyone jumping or falling from the landmark bridge since its 2007 opening.