Lebanon officers convince suicidal man not to jump
Jul. 30—The distraught man was standing on the wrong side of the guardrail on the Bridge Street bridge in Lebanon, threatening to jump into the fast-moving Connecticut River below. A good Samaritan had stopped and was trying to help.
Just down the street, Officer Matt Kaufman and Sgt. Logan Scelza were inside the Circle K convenience store when several people burst in around 10:20 p.m. Monday, alerting them to the crisis unfolding on the bridge.
In moments, the two police officers were on the scene, talking soothingly with the man.
"We started to talk to him in a calm manner, reassuring him that everything was OK," Kaufman said in a phone interview Tuesday. "Starting to build a rapport with him, trying to establish trust."
And within about 20 minutes, Kaufman and Scelza had convinced the man to step back over the guardrail to safety. He agreed to go with them to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center to get help.
Both officers had gone through Crisis Intervention Team training, so they knew what to do that night. That's not just a lucky coincidence.
While many departments have some officers who have been through the CIT program, every sworn officer in Lebanon completes the training when they join the department, according to Police Chief Phillip Roberts.
"As we saw last night, it works," Roberts said. "We don't want to have to wait 45 minutes or an hour for a crisis team to respond."
"Seconds and minutes are crucial when you have a gentleman standing on the opposite side of a guardrail on a bridge, contemplating taking his own life," the chief said.
The man, who appeared to be in his late 50s or early 60s, told the officers that he had been struggling of late. "I think it was just a buildup of a bunch of things going on in his life at the time," Kaufman said. "He was having a hard time coping and dealing with it. He didn't know a better way to deal with it."
What did they say to him that made a difference? "I think the sergeant and myself just kind of talked with him as human beings," Kaufman said. "Expressed to him we were there to help him and we were there because we care about him."
Chief Roberts said CIT has been part of his department's training protocol for about 10 years. During the lockdowns that accompanied the pandemic, he said, the number of mental health calls his officers responded to jumped dramatically.
But Roberts said his 32 patrol officers also use that training when they handle other calls, including domestic violence, intoxicated subjects or drug incidents. "There's endless calls they go on in their daily patrols where these skills come into play, and help them de-escalate all kinds of scenes," he said.
Scelza has been with Lebanon police since 2019 and Kaufman joined the department in 2021.
Chief Roberts said he reviewed the body-camera footage from the incident and was impressed with what he saw. "I couldn't be prouder of how the two officers handled it," he said. "This event just serves as a reminder of the challenging situations that these officers face in their daily work, so it's important to give them the training and resources to handle this."
Kaufman and Scelza helped check the man into the emergency department at the hospital, and left their resource cards with him. "If he ever needs anything, he has our contact information and contact information for resources in the Upper Valley area that can further assist him," Kaufman said.
—The National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress, as well as prevention and crisis resources. Call or text 988. For more resources, or to talk with a Lifeline counselor, visit: 988lifeline.org.
—New Hampshire also has a Rapid Response crisis hotline that can connect callers with a mobile crisis response team if necessary. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health and/or substance use crisis in New Hampshire, call or text 833-710-6477 or visit nh988.com.
