CARING OFFICER DETERS SUICIDE;
TALK PERSUADES MAN NOT TO JUMP FROM BRIDGE ONTO I-25Sarah Langbein, Rocky Mountain News
The man was ready to take his own life.
He walked across an Alameda Avenue bridge, climbed onto a caged portion of the overpass and stared down at Interstate 25.
Officer Eddie Padia locked eyes with him and started talking. He introduced himself but left off his title to help ease the tension. He wanted to reach out on a personal level.
"I told him life wasn't all that bad and that there are people who care about him, and that I was one of them," Padia, 34, said.
Last Friday night, I-25 was shut down in both directions for 45 minutes as the drama unfolded.
Padia spent 30 minutes calmly talking with the man. They talked about his fear of police, about his family and his love for the Broncos - all to shift the focus from jumping, the officer said.
Padia, a 2004 Denver Police Academy graduate, used his training as a member of the department's Crisis Intervention Team to de-escalate the situation.
"I told him I'd give him all of the time he needed," Padia said. "He said, 'I only want to talk to you, and I want everyone else to stand back.' "
Padia felt confident that his training and his personal connection with the man would eventually bring him to safety, so he asked his colleagues to stand back.
Then, Padia gave the man his word.
"I reached out my hand to him and said, 'I promise that we'll talk,' " he said. "I told him I wouldn't hurt him."
Padia also tried to line up a phone call between the man and a sister in Colorado Springs.
And then the man came down from the ledge.
Padia again reached out his hand and patted the man on his shoulder. The officer requested medical treatment and watched the man ride away in an ambulance.
"I did what any officer would have done," Padia said.
Leigh Sinclair, CIT administrator for the police department, said Padia's actions speak to the type of officer he is.
"He did a great job," Sinclair said. "Just that he was able to get him down, to establish a rapport, to save a life, that's huge."
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