Atlantic City officers stop man from jumping off parking garage ledge

The potential tragedy turned into a life-saving stand on the top floor of a parking garage in Atlantic City. Officer Kyle Bender was responding to a tense mental health call. And a never-before-seen body cam footage. We hear how his words made all the difference for a life hanging in the balance. A crisis at extreme heights. >> Atlantic City police find this man at the top floor of a parking garage drinking alcohol. He's sitting on the ledge in emotional distress. He stated that if he saw any police or EMS yet, he was going to jump. >> Officers Kyle Bender and Melvin Murray III knew they needed to act fast. >> Officer Murray, most senior guy, as we're walking up, me and Officer Murray decided that we were going to have a plan. Our plan was just to snatch and grab him. Uh come right behind him so he doesn't see us and just grab him, get off that ledge. >> Bender Murray and other officers parked in a position where the man could not see them and began a coordinated approach to execute a rush up from behind, saving him from the edge. probably less than a minute. Once we initially grabbed him, we just locked our hands together, grabbed him. I had to get over the top ledge to pull him over because he was between the building and then a sign and there's a little ledge underneath that sign where he was standing on. So, we had to kind of grab him up and over and pull him back. >> We're going to keep hold of you just in case. >> With people in a mental health crisis, you never know what they're going to do. I could feel for him. He was feeling very like emotional at that time. We were just trying to reassure him as much as we could to make sure that he wasn't trying to throw us over with him. Uh it seemed once we got hold of him, we kind of talked him down a little bit. >> And that type of deescalation takes a level of training that Bender says came from the police force, but also as a former Marine with two deployments overseas. As for the man in crisis, he was transported to Atlanticare Regional Medical Center for an evaluation. Bender's compassion on the top floor of that parking garage seen as nothing short of heroic. It >> feels really good. I mean, I'm here to do a job. I signed up to do it. >> Yeah. So for anyone that needs assistance or know someone that needs help, please call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988. If you also know a first responder who's gone above and beyond while on the call of duty, let us know. Head to 6abc.com/heroes. And officer Bender talked about how he gets that type of training. But it's so wonderful to see that natural ability to connect with somebody who's having a mental health crisis and really be the difference between life and death. And I'm glad you pointed out the fact that he is a veteran himself and we honor him on this Veterans Day. Continues to serve the community in really critical ways. Christie, thanks.