Cook County Sergeant Saves Suicidal Man Found Perched on Overpass

In nearly 10 years with the Cook County sheriff’s department, Michael Dwyer cannot recall being faced with a suicidal person. Still, the Cook County Sheriff’s sergeant noticed something amiss on an overpass Monday night and pulled over just in time to save a life.

Dwyer, 39, was driving westbound on I-80 around 7:30 p.m. when he spotted a person perched on a guardrail of the Halsted Street overpass in East Hazel Crest.

”It didn’t seem safe,” he told Chicago Tribune.

Dwyer followed his intuition and headed toward the overpass where he found a man in his 20s straddling the guardrail. Dwyer looked into his eyes as he attempted to connect with the man, but things took a nearly heartbreaking turn.

“I walked up slow with hands up. ‘Hey, can I help you? Do you need help?’ “ Dwyer told the Tribune. “I tried to talk to him to make contact.”

No answer. He told the Tribune what happened next.

“He was just staring, wouldn’t say a word,” Dwyer said. “He was just looking through me.”

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“He just kind of leaned to his left and began going off toward the expressway,” Dwyer said. “He was going off.”

Dwyer surged forward and grabbed the man. The two wrestled as the man tried to escape Dwyer’s grip. He was later handcuffed and placed in an ambulance headed for St. James Hospital. He was silent for a while. Then he spoke.

“He kept saying ‘I’m not dead yet, but I will be soon,’” Dwyer told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Dwyer was relieved at the outcome.

“If he went over and was to hit a car, it could have been two fatalities unfortunately, so it turned out to be good,” Dwyer said. ”I just wanted to get him away from the edge there.”

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