Richmond officers save woman from jumping off parking deck

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - It’s a long way down from the 8th floor of the parking garage by the Bank of America Center on East Cary Street, but that was nearly one woman’s last resort this past Tuesday.

Luckily, tragedy was averted thanks to Richmond Police officers, Tavon Morris and William Burnett.

They say they got a call of a woman dangling off a ledge of the deck; Officer Morris arrived first to assist the garage security personnel already trying to hold on to the woman.

”She was already on the opposite side [of the ledge], just ready to fall back. She was just going through it with her personal life, and that point, she was at her breaking point where she didn’t want to live anymore,” said Officer Morris.

He kept that grip for a few minutes, until his partner, Officer Burnett, arrived. He explained how he knew the woman was set on dying that day.

“Sometimes when you dealing with people, they’ll hold on to you if they really don’t have that intent to go. She literally had dropped her arms and was pushing away from us,” Burnett said.

With that in mind, the officers knew this woman’s life was literally in their hands and they continued their attempt to talk her back to safety.

”My whole thought process was just trying to relate to her a little bit; just try to see who she is, how she is as a person,” Morris said.

They say they knew words were getting nowhere with the woman, and that it was time to get physical if they wanted to save this life.

“I whispered over to Morris and I said, ‘When we go, we’re going to grab her and jerk her over.’ And when we went to reach over, that’s when she started pushing, struggling, and we just literally jerked her over the railing and brought her back to the opposite side,” said Burnett.

They say that have been in touch with the woman’s family, who is already making arrangements to get the woman treated.

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