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Highlands Today

Sebring officer saves man attempting suicide

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By BRAD DICKERSON

Highlands Today

Published: November 14, 2009

SEBRING - The quick action of a Sebring Police officer led to him saving the life of a man who had tied a rope around his neck and jumped off a bridge just south of Golfview Road on Thursday night.

Officer John Garrison arrived on the scene around 9 p.m. after a call came in about a suspicious person seen on the bridge.

"I'm shining my light just thinking somebody's going to be out there fishing or something," Garrison said Friday afternoon. "He never acknowledged me."

Instead, the officer saw that the man had one end of a rope wrapped around his neck and the other wrapped around the bridge, according to the incident report. Garrison continued shining his flashlight to get the man's attention and hollered, "Stop, stop, what are you doing?"

Garrison said he remembered learning in training that a person can die within 10 or 15 seconds with a rope around their neck.

Not responding to any of Garrison's attempts to get his attention, the man jumped from the large rock he was standing on.

The officer sprung quickly into action.

"I then jumped over the rail of the bridge and shined my flashlight underneath the bridge to see if there was anyone else present, which there was not," Garrison wrote in the incident report. "I then jumped up onto the rock (the man) just jumped off of and was able to grab him by the upper torso, just below his shoulders, and pull him toward me."

Garrison then cut the rope with a knife he had in his pocket, got the man to the ground and put him in handcuffs.

"At this point, he was limp," Garrison said Friday.

The man suffered rope burns and was taken to the hospital. Garrison said the man explained he tried to take his own life because he had no job, no home, no food and his family is in Puerto Rico.

"He had all his personal belongings in a backpack," Garrison said. "He thought that was his only way out."

The man was placed into protective custody and taken to a receiving facility. Garrison said medical officials are now trying to get him the help he needs.

As for himself, the SPD officer said in all his time on the force, he'd never been involved in a situation like the one he faced Thursday night.

Once the man jumped, Garrison said the "adrenaline kicked in" and he went over the rail to save a life.

"I didn't even think about it," he said. "There's not a Sebring Police officer that wouldn't have done it."

Highlands Today reporter Brad Dickerson can be reached at (863) 386-5838 or bdickerson@highlandstoday.com

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