1,000 Words: The cop and the distraught woman

The most fascinating element of my talk with one of the Willmar police officers who finished the snow shoveling that killed an 84-year-old man was this statement of his: “I didn’t even tell my wife.”

I thought of that this morning when I looked at this photo that’s racing around the InterTubes this morning. Just another day at the office.

Photo: California Highway Patrol.

It happened on Tuesday evening on the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, CHP reported on its Facebook page.

On February 10, 2016, CHP San Francisco Area Motorcycle Officers J. Maya and D. Ribergaard responded to a call of a possibly suicidal female subject who had climbed over the railing of the Eastern span of the Bay Bridge.

Upon arriving at the location given they confirmed with CHP dispatch there was a party sitting on the ledge of the bridge ready to jump over the side. Both then attempted to speak with the subject but received limited responses.

Officer Maya borrowed a tow strap from a Caltrans bridge tow truck and tied it around himself then onto the bridge railing. Officer Maya, a Crisis Intervention Trained (CIT) Officer, then climbed over the railing and engaged in conversation with the distraught subject.

Eventually he was able to convince the female subject to come back over the railing where she was taken into custody. The party was taken to St. Francis Hospital for a mental health evaluation.

If I had to guess — and I am — the story never came up when the officer was asked “how was your day?”