On June 12, 2014, at 2:52 pm, Officers Brad Uptmore, #8804, and Matthew Parson, #9111, responded to a possible jumper on top of the bridge at West Northwest Highway and Harry Hines Boulevard.  When they arrived, they saw a Latin male with his entire body clinging to the outside rail of the bridge from down below. They then quickly maneuvered around traffic to locate the man in distress on top of the bridge.

Once they got to him, the officers immediately began talking to him and shut down all traffic to the bridge. They quickly learned that the man was emotionally unstable as he made several threats to jump from the bridge to the roadway below. He even took out a knife and began to violently cut pieces of bailing twine showing officers that he was armed.  Despite all of this, Officers Uptmore and Parson continued to convey to the man that ending his life was not the appropriate solution to his problems. Between sobs and words, he started to converse with officers. He was distraught over being back on drugs after he had been sober for over six months.

At one point during their conversation, the man started to violently thrash the knife, but lost control of it, and it fell off the bridge. Both officers recognized this opportunity and promptly began to encroach and close the distance between themselves and the man. Officers continued to talk to him as they inched closer to his location. Once officers were in reaching range, both officers instantaneously leaped and grabbed the man who wavered on the edge of the bridge. Officers were able to get him safely over the rails to the ground. He was taken into custody and transported to a local hospital for an evaluation.

Officers Uptmore and Parson took heroic actions to preserve this man’s life. Such actions exemplify the professionalism and dedication to duty of law enforcement officers and are the types of actions that make our profession unique and gratifying.