William Michael Browne helped to save a boy from falling, Victorville, California, September 19, 2012. In a suicide attempt, a 16-year-old boy stood on the outside edge of a concrete parapet of a highway overpass and held to a fence there. The overpass spanned a multi-lane interstate and was about 25 feet above the highway surface. A crisis negotiator for the sheriff’s department, Browne, 46, was called to the scene, but the boy was unresponsive to him and others present. When the boy appeared to be fainting, officers secured finger holds of his attire through the chain-link fence. Without proper equipment, Browne mounted the parapet, scaled the six-foot-high fence, and lowered himself to the parapet’s outer edge. He advanced to the boy, straddled him, and held him to the fence. After several minutes, firefighters extended a ladder from the highway to them and lowered the boy to safety, Browne following.
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