Columbia man, 33, jailed after being brought down from power plant tower
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Police say a 33-year-old Columbia man had to be rescued after he was seen throwing items from the window of a Municipal Power Plant tower Wednesday morning.
Richard D. Nichols was charged with second-degree burglary, obstructing government operations and second-degree property damage. A probable cause statement was not immediately available on Wednesday afternoon, according to Boone County Prosecutor Roger Johnson.
First responders brought Nichols down from the power plant tower on Wednesday morning.
Multiple first responders were seen in the 1500 block of East Business Loop 70 on Wednesday morning after a man allegedly climbed one of the boilers of the Municipal Power Plant. The city also said the facility has surveillance footage of Nichols climbing a fence to get onto the property.
"It's clearly marked, it is fenced and there are video cameras that are reporting all angles of the perimeter of the facility," City spokesman Christopher Ave said.
Ave told ABC 17 News that officers were dispatched just after 6:30 a.m. about someone in a secure area of the power plant. Ave said the person was in a telecommunications facility in the power plant, about 150 feet in the air.
ABC 17 News arrived at the Municipal Power Plant just after 7 a.m. and saw a man sticking his head out of a window of a small enclosed area on an office located on the facility's smoke stack. An ABC 17 News videographer on scene also saw Nichols remove his shoes and throw them out of the window. The smoke stack was previously used when the facility processed coal and became non-operational in 2015.
The Columbia Police Department could be heard over a megaphone instructing the man to climb down. Ave said the man eventually left the area with police voluntarily just before 9 a.m.
"They had identified him, they were able to call him by name and encourage him to come down, and eventually they persuaded him to do so," Ave said.
Ave said the city is still investigating how the person, later identified publicly as Nichols, got into the plant and climbed the tower.
Columbia Utilities spokesman Jason West told ABC 17 News that the plant has staff working inside 24 hours a day. The plant used to burn coal for the city, but stopped doing so in 2015.
Nichols was on probation after pleading guilty to misusing 911, according to court records. He also has a history of trespassing, according to court records.
Nichols was in the Boone County Jail on Wednesday afternoon on a $4,500 bond, according to jail records.
The city also reports that there have been approximately five incidents of people trespassing onto the power plant in the past 20 years. However, no one has gone up the side of the smoke stack.
