Woman Threatening Suicide Jump Talked to Safety After 13 Tense Hours

[Updated 12:05 p.m.] Pasadena Police Crisis Team negotiators successfully convinced a suicidal woman to return to safety from her perch on the outer ledge of the Colorado Street Bridge after 13 hours of conversations which began Sunday night and ended about 11:40 a.m. on Labor Day.

The woman was unhurt. She was described only as being in her thirties.

“She is safe,” Pasadena Police Lieutenant Max Dahlstein said, adding that steps are being taken to ensure “she gets the proper care.”

Dahlstein said that during the incident the woman was agile and active and evaded firefighters’ attempts to position an inflatable cushion beneath her location by moving along the outer ledge of the bridge.

Dahlstein said she also moved past attempts to hem her in.

He said that the woman used the chain link fence installations constructed in July 2017 to prevent suicides as a barrier to protect herself against approaching officers.

The woman sat in one of the ten concrete alcoves behind the fencing and threatened to climb quickly onto the outer ledge if officers attempt to climb over the chain link to retrieve her, Dahlstein said.

Police Homeless Outreach and Psychiatric Evaluation Team and Crisis Team negotiators were at the scene since shortly after the woman was reported to police by a passerby.

In 2015, a similar marathon negotiation session with a 40-year-old British actor and model lasted over seven hours before the man tragically jumped to his death.

The bridge and surrounding areas beneath it were closed to the public since shortly after authorities were notified.