Two Minnesota delivery men had no idea that a usual day at work would end with them saving a man’s life.
After transporting beer to a local tavern in St. Paul on Wednesday, Jason Gabel and Kwame Anderson noticed a man clinging onto an overpass fence, according to Fox 9.
When Gabel and Anderson realized the man wanted to jump, they called 911.
“It was heartbreaking to see someone that way,” Gabel told the station.
Instead of waiting for police, Anderson tried to talk the man off the ledge.
“I thought about Denzel Washington when he’s acting as a cop in movies, and I thought about when he’s a negotiator,” Anderson said referencing Washington’s film Inside Man, in which Washington, 63, talks a bank robber into freeing hostages.
“I said, ‘Well, I gotta keep this guy entertained somehow because if I wait for police, this thing may be over,” Anderson told the news station.
Once police arrived and attempted to intervene, Gabel pleaded with them to let Anderson see it through.
“I could feel tension in air; he was intimidated by white cops. I said my helper is an extremely intelligent guy, I said I think we can talk this guy off the ledge,” Gabel explained to Fox 9.
That is when Anderson asked the man if he wanted to have a beer with him, quickly grabbing a 12-pack of Coors Light from his delivery truck, which in the end lured the man off the fence.
“I was extremely relieved. I didn’t plan on saving anybody or doing anything drastic, but I knew when I saw him standing here I wasn’t going to leave until he came off,” Anderson said.
The man was taken to hospital for evaluation.
Gabel, who has almost two decades with the delivery company Breakthru Beverage, told WCNC that someone was looking out for the man that day as they were not on their usual route.
“I don’t know why I did this. I take a left and I go toward the bridge but usually we always go straight,” Gabel told the station. “We have a route that we do every Wednesday and that wasn’t the way I would normally go. It wasn’t part of the plan, but it was God’s plan.”
Sergeant Mike Ernster with St. Paul Police has since applauded Gabel and Anderson for their heroic act.
“Beer has been bringing people together for a long, long time,” the officer told Pioneer Press. “Today, it brought people together in a life-saving way.”
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text “help” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.