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Bodycam video released shows two Harvard police officers lurching forward to grab a suicidal 20-year-old man who tried jumping from a bridge last month.
The Harvard Police Department received a 911 call at 6:27 a.m. on June 14 for a man sitting on the railing of the viaduct in the 100 block of North Division Street.
Police officers Cody Noren and Keith Salas arrived within minutes and began talking with the 20-year-old man, who was sitting on the rail looking down onto the railroad tracks.
“Hey, how’s it going? Obviously you are going through something difficult right now,” Officer Salas said as he approached the man.
As the officers continued to speak with the man, he turned and moved over the rail where he began to fall.
Officers Noren and Salas quickly reached forward and grabbed the man, who was hanging on with one hand to the railing. They were able to pull him back up over the railing.
“I just remember when he went over, I said, ‘I don’t want this kid to die,'” Officer Noren told ABC7 News in an interview.
“I just feel blessed that it worked out OK,” Officer Noren told ABC7.
The man was transported by ambulance to Mercy Harvard Hospital where he was held for crisis evaluation.