Dashcam catches moment Riverside officers save man from deadly leap into Missouri River

A dashcam aboard a Riverside police car caught the dramatic moment this week that Riverside officers grabbed a man attempting a potential deadly leap into the Missouri River from the Interstate 635 bridge.

Officer Eric Strong pulled up behind what appeared to be a stalled vehicle along northbound I-635 a little after 10 p.m. Monday.

A man wearing a baseball cap, black jacket and blue jeans stood between the SUV and the concrete wall of the bridge, the dashcam from Strong’s patrol car shows.

Strong cautiously walked up to the man and shined his flashlight on him. Traffic, including tractor-trailers, sped past.

“Sir. Hey, could you just come talk to me for a minute?” Strong asked. “C’mon man. It’s OK.”

Strong radioed to dispatchers that the man refused to talk.

“Hey. What’s your name?” Strong asked. “Sir, would you mind stepping back and talking to me for just a minute? C’mon man. I just want to talk to you.”

The man appeared not to respond. He just stood there looking down toward the river.

“Why not? Can you tell me what’s wrong?” Strong asked.

The dashcam recorded the radio traffic, including chatter about notifying fire departments and asking them to have their rescue boats ready. Strong was told not to get any closer to the man until other officers arrived.

Before backup arrived, the man shifted closer to the bridge wall. Then he placed his hands on the wall, swung his legs over the top and sat on the wall.

“He’s getting over the edge,” Strong told dispatchers. “Hey. Hey. C’mon man. It ain’t worth it. It’s not worth it man. Come back here and talk with me and we can figure this out.”

The man, however, continued to sit on the edge of the bridge. At one point, he lowered his face in to his hand.

“Whatever is going on we can fix it, man. We can. You just gotta come talk to me,” Strong pleaded. “Really. There’s nothing we can’t fix. Just c’mon back her and talk to me.”

At that point, K-9 officer Andrew Marr arrived and tried talking to the man.

“What’s going on tonight, man?” Marr asked. “Hey, could you listen to me real quick, buddy. Let’s talk about this, OK?”

Marr tried to assure the man that he would get help. About that time, Officer Jeremy McKown arrived.

As Marr continued to talk to the man, more radio chatter begins about having fire departments put boats in the water in case the man jumped.

As Marr inched closer to him, the man leaned forward and began to push off. Marr grabbed him and pulled him back over the wall. McKown helped pull him away from the wall. Strong helped the two officers subdue him against the pavement.

“We pulled him over before he jumped,” Marr told dispatchers. “We got him detained. Start fire and EMS please.”

They cuffed the man for his safety. With his arm around the man, Marr tried to get the man to talk about what was wrong. Marr tried to comfort the man, patting him man on the shoulder and stroking his back and shoulders.

Major Chris Skinrood of the Riverside Police Department praised the three officers for working together to get the man off the bridge so he could get the help he needed.

“They did a fantastic job,” Skinrood said. “They talked to him and took his focus away from trying to jump off the bridge.”

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This story was originally published May 26, 2016 at 7:48 AM with the headline "Dashcam catches moment Riverside officers save man from deadly leap into Missouri River."