Louisville detective says stopping man from jumping off 2nd Street Bridge was a race against time

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — A dramatic rescue unfolded on the 2nd Street Bridge when a Louisville Metro Police detective and a jogger worked together to save a man from jumping.

Detective Kyle Willis was on scene when he noticed something was off. Approaching cautiously, he turned off his lights and sirens to avoid alarming the individual on the bridge.

"I don’t want to scare the person, right? I don’t want to push them over even further. So once I get closer, I actually turn off my lights and sirens," Willis said Tuesday.

As Willis stepped out of his car, the man made a run for the railing. With one leg over the edge, it was a race against time.

"The quickest thing for me was when he decided to run and jump over that rail. That was—I mean, it was completely mind-blowing, but I knew that I couldn't let him get over that rail," Willis recalled.

A jogger out for her daily run on the bridge was trying to help the man when Willis arrived on scene. As the man went to jump over the rail, she instinctively reached out and grabbed him, holding on with all her might until Willis got to them.

"I'm not a big guy. I'm holding on to him with all my might. I'm so worried that he's going to go over. We're both going to go over, and my hands are tied," Willis said.

The jogger, frantic, pleaded for help. "Please help me, please help me," she cried.

Knowing he needed immediate backup, Willis directed her to press the orange distress button on his police radio, a call that alerts every officer in the city.

"It’s a distress call. It goes to every officer in the city, and it lets them know that I need help," Willis explained. "And as a police officer, a lot of people think that we don’t need help. We don’t have other problems at home. But in that moment, I did need help."

Help arrived within moments. Officers pulled the man back over the rail and secured him safely. Once out of immediate danger, they turned to the bigger question—why?

The jogger had stopped after noticing the man in distress.

"She stopped and saw him pondering and said, ‘What’s on your heart?’ What more of a good human being or a person can even ask for?" Willis said.

But the officers' job didn’t end there. After taking the man to a local hospital, Willis and another officer stayed to speak with him, offering words of support.

"For some reason, he thought that he was not supposed to be here," Willis said. "And I had to make him know that. Think about it—I wasn’t supposed to be at work today."

The man is now receiving the care he needs, thanks to the quick-thinking actions of both a dedicated detective and a compassionate stranger who refused to look the other way.

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