Officer stumbles upon, and thwarts, potential suicide at Capital Avenue bridge
Monday was Worldwide Suicide Prevention Day, and it just happened to be the day a local police officer was called to serve the cause in dramatic fashion.
Corp. Randy Peppers of the St. Joseph County Police wasn’t called to the scene of a potential suicide attempt Monday morning—he stumbled upon it.
“Yeah, I was just driving by, I saw her on the inside right here, and I stopped and just started a conversation with her, and she goes, 'Please just go, I just want to jump.' And I said, 'I can't let you jump,'” Peppers recalls.
The woman was standing at the east edge of the Capital Avenue Bridge Monday morning at about 10:30 a.m.
Corp. Peppers actually drove past her before he managed to put all the pieces together. “She wasn’t even hanging on. I mean, it wasn't like she was hanging on to the railing. She was trying to throw like she was going to throw and jump.”
Corp. Peppers backed his squad car up and tried to talk her down through the passenger side window of his squad car. She told him if he got out of his car, she’d jump.
“And I said, 'You know everybody loves you,' and she says, 'No, nobody loves me.' I said, 'There's a lot of people here that love you. Look at, there's all kinds of people stopped here. Everybody's concerned about you, nobody wants you to jump,'” Peppers said.
When a civilian passerby stopped at the scene, Corporal Peppers told them to distract the woman long enough for Peppers to make his move.
“She only had one hand on the bar, and when I grabbed her, she lunged. Fortunately my hand was underneath her coat and I was able to bear hug her and pull her back up over. And she was struggling with me when I was trying to get her over the railing.”
Eventually the woman arrived safely at the hospital. Peppers said her parents later called him to thank him.
“It’s our job to serve and protect, and I was called that day to serve and protect."
Corporal Peppers said he had no idea that Monday was Worldwide Suicide Prevention Day, until he was informed of that fact by the civilian who stopped to help.
