Video Shows Atlantic City Officers Pull Suicidal Man From Ledge

A police body-cam video from July shows Atlantic City Police saving a suicidal man from jumping from the top floor of a casino parking garage.

6ABC has shown a portion of the video, where police come up behind the man as he sits on the ledge of the parking garage.

The unidentified man had said he would jump if any police or EMTs approached him.

Two Atlantic City Police Officers Honored

Two Atlantic City Police officers, Kyle Bender and  Melvin Murray, were the first of several officers attempting to save the man. Officer Kyle Bender said that Officer Murray was the senior officer on site that day.

"So, he decided that we were to have a plan. Our plan was just a snatch and grab him. Come right behind him and just grab him and get him off that ledge. With people in a mental health crisis? You never know what they're going to do".

The officers arrived at the building and parked out of sight of the man. When they got to the roof of the Hard Rock Casino garage, they quietly approached the man without being seen and grabbed onto the man.

Kyle Bender told 6ABC the plan unfolded on the roof in less than a minute.

"Once we initially grabbed him, we just locked our hands together, grabbed him. I had to get over the top ledge to pull him over. He was between the building and the sign, and there's a little ledge underneath that sign we were standing on. We had to kind of grab him and pull him up and over and then back."

Bender said he had sympathy for the man and how emotional he was at that moment.

"We were just trying to reassure him as much as we could to make sure that he wasn't trying to throw us over with him. It seemed once we got hold of him, we kind of talked him down a bit", he said.

Police Officers Were Honored for Their Actions

Officer Kyle Bender was recognized in a September ceremony at Hard Rock Hotel, Casino and Spa by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention for his life-saving actions that day.

Officer Melvin Murray also received the award, though he was unable to attend the ceremony.