“I was taking pictures of Alcatraz at the time, and while I was taking the pictures, I saw, out of the corner of my eye, a girl walking by. She climbed over the rail, and she did it so smoothly… It was almost like she was going, like she had her own little clubhouse… I don’t know, like she was going to sit on the ledge to eat lunch.

So, I got a couple pictures of her climbing over, and then I started taking pictures of her standing on the ledge, and I realized that this girl’s about to jump. But when I was behind the camera, it was almost like it wasn’t real, because I was looking through the lens. I guess I was waiting for her to jump, because I thought there was nothing I could do. It was too late.

I started yelling out to the girl, you know, asking her what was wrong. She seemed to be speaking in a different language, and basically, like, tuning me out. Like, really not thinking about what I was saying. So, I got up on the rail and I reached out, and I really didn’t know I was gonna be able to grab the back of her jacket… But once I grabbed it, I just lifted her over the rail and got her down on the ground. She started fighting me a little bit, so I just sat on her chest and called 911, and they were probably there within a couple minutes.”

(Source: sarahxmay, via serpentinitic)