By Kate Ramunni
New Haven Register
HAMDEN, Conn. — A Hamden police officer is being hailed as a hero after he saved a man from jumping six stories to almost certain death Friday.
The man, a resident at Whitney Center, was being “combative” with staff, which led them to call police Friday afternoon, police spokesman Capt. Ronald Smith said in a release Tuesday.
Officer Justin Martin was among the officers who responded to the complex, Smith said.
“Upon arrival Officer Martin met with staff members and an elderly male resident,” Smith said in the release. The man again became upset and ran off, Smith said, and Martin found him on the sixth floor of the building, exiting through a door that leads to a terrace.
As the man flung himself off a railing on the side of the terrace, Martin ran over and caught him and was able to pull him back over the rail onto the terrace. The entire incident was caught by Martin’s body camera and shows how close both men came to going over the side of the building.
“His actions are certainly heroic,” Police Chief Thomas Wydra said of Martin, who has been with the department for about three years. “I think you can see from the recording that another second, this resident would have been successful at jumping from the sixth floor.”
Martin acted without regard for his own life but only to save the man’s life, Wydra said.
“When you think about it, Officer Martin could have gone over the ledge with the man — the man was literally going over the edge of the roof — and because Officer Martin is a big, strong, young man, he was able to pull the man back on the balcony. He really risked his life. When you watch the recording, he could have easily gone over the ledge with the resident by grabbing him that way.”
What Martin did “is remarkable,” Wydra said.
The man was taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital for evaluation, Smith said. The department plans a press conference Wednesday afternoon with Martin to discuss the incident, Wydra said
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©2017 the New Haven Register (New Haven, Conn.)