A Cincinnati police officer is being praised for helping stop a woman in crisis from jumping off the top of a parking garage.
Last week, the Cincinnati Police Departmentshared body camera footage of the incident, which occurred in November.
The video shows the officer, identified by his last name (Newman), running up a building’s stairwell leading to the outside garage.
Once at the garage’s top level, he stops several feet away from the woman — who appears to be leaning over a railing, and whose identity has been blurred by police — and asks her not to jump.
“Please. Come here. I’m going to help you,” Newman tells her, then adding, “I will help you. I give you my word.”
The officer asks if he can come closer and says to hold tightly to the railing.
“I know times are tough,” Newman tells her. “But listen to me. Don’t jump. Let us help you.”
“I can’t be helped,” the woman is heard saying.
Newman asks her to look at him before sharing something personal.
“I lost my daughter many years ago,” he says. “I wish she could be here.”
When the woman says that she lost her children as well, Newman tries to comfort her.
“I’m so sorry,” he says, “There are angels looking over us … There’s an angel for you.”
The woman tells him she doesn’t want to talk about it, and later Newman asks her, “Can I hold you please and give you a hug?”
“Do you need anything? I will do anything right now,” he adds. “Let me help you. I’m sorry about your kids … I think God sent me here to talk to you. I understand how you feel.”
Newman continues to ask the woman if he can come hold her while urging her not to let go of the railing.
The footage shows Newman appearing to take a step closer until the woman cries, “Help me!” Newman immediately rushes over and pulls her off the railing with the help of other officers.
In a statement on social media, the Cincinnati Police Department lauded Newman for “bravely” stepping in “with compassion, patience, and care to help someone in a moment of crisis.”
“Officer Newman didn’t just step in to protect but to connect—showing patience, empathy, and care when it was needed most,” the department added. “Being part of a community means looking out for one another. Officers are fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers — just like you.”
