Published December 06, 2018
Dramatic dashcam video captured an Ohio deputy springing into action on Sunday when he spotted a suicidal man attempting to jump off an overpass and made the split-second decision to pull him to safety.
Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy William Ball was on routine patrol just before 6:20 a.m. Sunday when he saw the unidentified man on Interstate 270 looking over the overpass wall, police said. Ball pulled over and began talking to the man, who said: “I’m sorry. I got nothing left. I’m just done.”
"He gave me a few minutes, at one point he had come toward me and he had just told me I was going to have to shoot him to stop him, and you know I told him, I said, 'Listen, I am not going to shoot you, I don't want to hurt you anyway, I want to get you some help,'” Ball told FOX28.
The deputy said the man began walking away from the wall.
“Just for a brief moment, and he realized I was trying to keep him away from the wall -- and then he just went straight back to the wall," Ball said.
Dashcam video captured the man attempting to leap over the overpass and the footage shows Ball quickly grabbing the man's legs and pulling him back to safety on the road. A driver who saw the incident stopped to help the deputy.
The man who tried to jump was taken to a hospital for a mental health evaluation.
"I didn't really want to be on camera whatsoever, however, I think it is important that people see what we really do, what we really deal with," Ball said. "You don't know what everybody is dealing with on a daily basis you know? Be receptive, people are going through a lot and struggling, so don't judge them before you really know what's going on."
Franklin County Sheriff’s Office posted the video on its Facebook page on Tuesday, which has received more than 100,000 views as of Thursday. Police also thanked the two people who stopped to help the deputy and suicidal man.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/ohio-deputy-rescues-suicidal-man-from-jumping-off-overpass-caught-in-dramatic-video