The Olympian

A 27-year-old man who witnesses say thought he was jumping into water from the Fourth Avenue Bridge has died, according to an Olympia police report.

The man was found unconscious on land underneath the bridge about 11:30 p.m. last Thursday. He was taken to Providence St. Peter Hospital and died there about 5 a.m. Friday, according to the report.

He was identified as Fernando J. Gutierrez of Aberdeen by the Thurston County Coroner’s Office, which labeled his death an accident.

The police report gives the following account of the Fourth of July incident:

When police arrived at the scene in the 700 block of Fourth Avenue West, the man’s girlfriend told police that he “thought there was water under the bridge and had jumped off.”

A second witness said that the girlfriend and the man who died “had been drinking prior to the incident.”

The man previously jumped “off the docks by the port,” then made his way to the bridge, according to the witness.

The witness said the man “decided he wanted to jump off the bridge,” and then he saw him “running across the street and saw him jump off (the south side).”