Editor’s note: If you or someone you know is struggling or having thoughts of suicide, you are not alone — and help is always available. Call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline to connect with a trained counselor, or chat online at 988lifeline.org. Whether you’re seeking support for yourself or someone you care about, please know that it’s never too late to reach out. You deserve help. You deserve hope. Someone is ready to listen.
SHENANDOAH, Texas —The Shenandoah Police Department released body camera footage showing an officer helping an 11-year-old girl as she approached the railing of a highway overpass, WFAA reported.
Officers were called to the scene when the girl, who was being driven to receive mental health treatment, bailed out of her mother’s car and walked through lanes of traffic to reach a highway overpass.
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Officer Patrick Reade spoke with the girl as she walked toward a guardrail.
“I’m not going to do anything, I’m not going to do anything,” said Reade during the encounter. “I want to talk, come here, you’re not in trouble, you’re not in trouble.”
The girl climbed on top of a guardrail and sat on it as Reade pleaded with her to come speak with him.
“I’m begging you, please come here and talk to me,” Reade said.
As Reade spoke to the girl, he was able to approach her, eventually getting close enough to pull her off the edge.
“But it was really that moment when she looked away, where I tried to seize that opportunity and grab a hold of her,” Reade told WFAA. “She wanted me to let her go, but that wasn’t going to happen. Unfortunately, that was the kind of state of mind she was in.”
