UNIVERSITY PARK, Texas — Dallas police say it doesn’t appear a 44-year-old man was armed when he holed up in the cab of a 150-foot crane for 14 hours before falling to his death.

Lee Dell Thomas Jr. died early Tuesday, about 14 hours after he climbed into the crane towering over Southern Methodist University.

Additional Photos

A man sits in a crane 150 feet above the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas, threatening to shoot the Dallas Police officers trying to talk him down, Monday, May 28, 2012. Special tactics officers from the Dallas Police Department were working with SMU campus police to manage the scene and try to talk the man down from the crane. Early Tuesday, the man fell to his death. (AP Photo/The Dallas Morning News, David Woo)

A robbery suspect believed to be armed is in a standoff with police in a crane high above the SMU campus. Early Tuesday, the man fell to his death. (Michael Prengler/Special Contributor) Special Contributor

Police say Thomas had claimed he was armed on Monday and threatened to shoot anyone who approached him.

Assistant Chief Thomas Lawrence, however, said no weapon was found either on Thomas or in the crane cab.

Lawrence also said Thomas was “a person of interest” in the hijacking early Monday of a box truck containing band equipment, but hadn’t been conclusively linked to the heist.

The campus was closed for Memorial Day, but reopened Tuesday.

This story will be updated.

Related Stories