“Don’t do it,” Fort Worth police Officer Justin Henry tells a distraught woman, who had climbed onto a concrete barrier on I-35 West around 7 p.m. Saturday.
“We were scared,” Henry said Thursday at a news conference where he spoke about how he and his partner, Trae Cierzan, saved the woman. “A storm was coming, it was windy and we didn’t know what was going to happen.
Police posted video of the rescue Thursday on Facebook.
As Henry and Cierzan pulled up with their patrol car to a car with its emergency flashing lights on, a woman got out of the car.
“We thought it was going to be just a stranded vehicle,” Henry said. “Maybe it was just a car stalled and someone was looking over the ledge.”
When the woman stepped on the barrier on top of the overpass, the officers tried to talk her down, the Star-Tribune reported.
“We tried to get her to talk to us,” Cierzan said at the news conference. “We let our training take over.”
“Don’t do it,” Henry can be heard on the video. “Come here. Come on. Come on. What’s your name?”
“It doesn’t matter,” the woman said to Henry.
“It does matter, “ Henry said.
Henry continues to talk to the woman as Cierzan inched closer to her from behind, the Star-Tribune reported.
“Please take care of my dog,” the woman can be heard on the video. “Everybody wants me dead.”
Within seconds, the officers grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to safety.
“We both are happy at how it ended,” Henry said at the news conference. “We were at the right place at the right time.”
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