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November 30, 2006

A life on the edge

The man was ready to jump from the Jamestown-Verrazzano Bridge this morning when the police got there.

As officers climbed over a cement barrier to get closer, the man, in his 30s, stepped on the outside of the railing. He was on the bad side of the bridge, as the police say.

Daniel Silva, 27, was among the first police officers to get there at 4:30 this morning. On the North Kingstown force for just 2 ½ years, Silva had never worked with somebody ready to commit suicide.

Silva tried to develop a rapport. What's your name? Why are you up here? Let me help. He was searching for a reason for the man not to jump.

"Back up," the man said.

Silva moved back: "We told him we had to get out of the lane of travel, because at that point, there was still some traffic" on the bridge, Silva said.

The bridge was soon closed.

A couple of times, the man let go of the railing. With his back to the water, he'd turn and look behind him, "contemplating whether he was going to do it or not," Silva said.

Silva just kept him talking. And he inched closer.

"Back up," the man would say. Silva would.

Inch closer, Silva kept thinking. And he did.

"Eventually, I was able to sit on a guardrail," Silva said. "He told me to back up, but I was able to divert his attention" and get even closer.

At one point, the man let go of the railing: "He almost slipped and caught himself, and he was scared," Silva said. "It gave you the feeling that he didn't necessarily want to go over."

The man stopped telling Silva to back up.

"That's when I grabbed him and pulled him toward me," Silva said.

Then the other officers, who'd also been moving closer, took hold of the man, too.

"It was almost like he wanted to be grabbed at that point," Silva said.

The man, whose name wasn't released, has been taken to South County Hospital.

Silva has gone home, to "go to bed," he said, after his midnight to 8 a.m. shift.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

Posted by Kate Bramson  at 9:35 AM | Permalink

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