2 beer delivery drivers talk a suicidal man down from a bridge by cracking open a 12-pack
Beer doesn’t have a reputation for saving lives, but as with everything in life, an exception can be made.
Kwame Anderson and Jason Gabel, who work as beer delivery drivers in Minnesota, were running their usual route when they spotted a man hanging onto a fence on a highway overpass in St. Paul on Wednesday. Believing the man was suicidal, Anderson quickly phoned the police.
Gabel pulled their truck over and called out to the man, asking him if he was all right and imploring him to come back over to the other side of the fence.
Anderson told the Twin Cities Pioneer Press that he jumped out of the truck and said to the man, “If you’re thinking of jumping, you don’t have to jump.”
The man, according to Anderson, said, “You don’t know me. You don’t care. Why are you trying to save me?”
“If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t be here right now,” Anderson replied.
Anderson credits Denzel Washington and his role in Inside Man as the inspiration for his quick thinking and negotiation skills.
“I thought about Denzel Washington when he’s acting as a cop in movies. I said, ‘Well, I gotta keep this guy entertained somehow because if I wait for police, this thing may be over,'” Anderson told KMSP-TV.
Anderson worked to build a rapport with the man, even finding out that they both hailed from Chicago.
Eventually, St. Paul police officers arrived, while the Minnesota State Patrol and St. Paul fire department closed the interstate beneath the man.
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But Gabel believed that the white police officers were making the man nervous. So, along with Anderson, the pair quickly thought of a plan. Anderson went into the truck and pulled out a 12-pack of beer.
“I have a pack of Coors Light for you. Follow me,'” Anderson said. The man obliged and inched his way back to safety. He didn’t receive his drink, however, because paramedics took him to Regions Hospital to be evaluated.
“Beer has been bringing people together for a long, long time,” Sgt. Mike Ernster, a St. Paul police spokesman, told the Pioneer Press. “Today, it brought people together in a life-saving way.”
Kwame Anderson did not immediately respond to Yahoo Lifestyle’s requests for comment.
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