Brian Lord, of the Antrim Police Department, successfully talked a 19-year-old man out of jumping off the bridge on Bridge Street in Hillsborough.
Lord was off duty on Friday morning when he saw a young man climb over the top rail on the east side of the bridge. In a police report, Lord said he stopped and engaged with the man, who stated “his life was over.”
After a couple more minutes of talking, the young man climbed back over the railing of the bridge and began to run away. Hillsborough Officer William Bannister intercepted the man and took him into protective custody. The man was later taken to Concord Hospital for evaluation.
“That was new,” said Lord on Monday. “They train us a little bit for that [kind of situation] at the academy, but it’s really just reading the person, trying to talk to them, get them to listen.”
Lord said that his presence on the scene was just a coincidence that “happened to work out very well”.