‘I Love You’: Atlantic City Cop Saves Suicidal Man About To Jump From Parking Garage
Dramatic body camera footage shows the moment Officer Eric Knuttel, a five-year veteran, rescuing a distraught man from the ledge of a 13-story-high Claridge parking garage on Wednesday night.
The Atlantic City police officer spoke exclusively with CBS3 about the heart-stopping moment. He explained that the Pleasantville Police Department had reached out to Atlantic City Police, letting them know that a suicidal man was threatening to jump from the bridge. “You could just hear in his voice he was distraught and he was hurting,” Knuttel told the news outlet. Knuttel, a member of the department’s Crisis Negotiation Team, was able to locate the man sitting on a ledge and started to talk to him to calm the man down.
“We had a fairly long conversation. We were going to try to build rapport with him, so he knew somebody cared, and he knew somebody was there for him and not just him against the world,” Knuttel said. As 10 minutes passed, he saw the man become more angry as he was on FaceTime with someone. “I saw him stand up and look toward the sides and he rolled his head down and he started walking. I knew that I had to do something,” Knuttel said. Knuttel then got toward him, grabbing the man’s legs to keep him stationary as other responding officers pull the two back from the ledge. As the cops tried to console the man, Knuttel rubs his back and then tells him, “I love you.”
The man was eventually transported to Atlantic Care Regional Medical Center for treatment. Knuttel told the outlet that he hopes to stay in contact with the man he helped save.
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