A Evanston, Ill. police officer spent part of his off-day this weekend helping save a suicidal man from jumping off the top of a parking garage.
Detective Ken Carter had just finished a meal with his fiancée and her daughter in the city's downtown around 5 p.m. Sunday when they noticed a man standing on a top-story ledge of a parking garage at least 70 feet high, according to The Chicago Tribune.
Carter said the man was yelling and pacing back and forth while looking over the edge in the pouring down rain. He called the police dispatch center to report the man and joined responding officers to the roof of the garage.
The 12-year veteran of the force devised a plan with the other officers for him to sneak up behind the man as the other officers tried to talk him down.
"I had to act quickly because he said he was going to go," Carter told the newspaper. "He wanted to jump." Carter can be seen in surveillance video slowly crawling toward the man. "I said a prayer, and once I got close enough, I grabbed him and held him and the assisting officers managed to get him off the ledge," he said. "When I grabbed him he kind of lurched forward. I held on for life. It took the assistance of my co-workers to get him off. It was a struggle. He was very upset. He did not want to come off the ledge."
Officials said the would-be jumper was not injured but was taken to a hospital for treatment.
"Our goal was to preserve his life and to get him to safety," Carter said. " I knew once I came close to him and got a grasp on him, I knew my co-workers were going to be right there by my side and get him down. It worked out."
