Florida cop rescues suicidal man from bridge
· Toronto Sun
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A Florida man who threatened to jump off a bridge was talked off the ledge by a cop last Thursday.
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Bodycam footage released by the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office showed the suicidal man sitting on the railing of Vilano Bridge in St. Augustine, Fla., with one end of a plastic strap tied to his neck and the other end tied to the bridge’s railing.
The officer approaches the man, telling him, “Please do not do this. I’m here to help you, my friend.”
The cop continues pleading, urging him to step off the ledge, while promising to get him the help he needs.
‘I don’t really want to do this’
“I don’t really want to do this,” the man responds, adding that he feels “trapped.”
The cop changes tactics, telling the man, “You have a family that loves you, dude. Don’t do this, dude … There’s people that love you, dude. You have all these people that want to make sure you are safe and not doing what you plan on doing.”
The man then said he’ll listen to the cop and removes the strap from his neck.
Once off the ledge, the cop tells the sobbing man, “You did the right thing.”
He was taken into custody in accordance with Florida’s Baker Act, which allows law enforcement to take a person experiencing severe mental health crises into custody when the individual poses an immediate danger to themselves or others.
Police said the man was taken to a health-care facility.