Video: Evanston Cop Prevents a Suicide Jump

An off-duty Evanston Police detective is credited with saving the life of a 22-year-old man who was threatening to commit suicide by jumping off the parking garage in the 1800 block of Maple Avenue on Sunday.

According to police, Ken Carter, a 12-year police veteran and member of the Neighborhood Enforcement Team, was notified by a relative when they were leaving a nearby restaurant around 5 p.m. that a man was standing on the ledge on the top floor of the garage.

“The detective notified the dispatch center and proceeded to the top floor of the parking garage when the responding officers arrived,” according to a report. “The male subject was extremely distraught and stated that he was going to kill himself by jumping off of the ledge.”

While two on-duty detectives were speaking to the man, Carter was able to crawl along the ledge behind him and grab hold of him until assisting units were able to pull him away.

The man, an Evanston resident, was taken to an Evanston hospital for treatment.

The detective’s grab starts at about the 1-minute mark of this parking deck video: