When a good Samaritan came up to him and told him, "God loves you," a man under mental anguish was persuaded that his life was worth keeping even after spending hours hanging dangerously from a sign over an Oklahoma highway on Tuesday.
When Rick Jewell was trying to persuade a man to abandon his plans to jump to his death, he told him "God loves you guy."
"I just started talking to him and I told him there was more to life than what he was doing and that God loved him," he told News Channel 8. "He looked at me and I told him to throw me his cigarettes, he threw me those, I said throw me that rope, he threw me that rope, and I said now get down from there. I said they're going to help you. He headed down. Simple. It's crazy."
Even though it seemed too simplistic, Jewell disclosed the more compelling reason for his effective persuasion of a distressed guy to abandon suicide thoughts.
"What I did for 15 minutes over there before you showed up, I was praying. So, that had a lot to do with it, I'm sure," he said.
Jewell was initially seen by Tulsa reporters from across the street, and then from the other direction. He arrived at the scene looking concerned and stood next to the train tracks, staring up at the man above him.
"I stayed over here and prayed for 15 minutes when I first got here, and then my son says, 'Look over there Dad, there's a cross right behind him,'" he told the reporters.
Interestingly enough, the highway sign structure where the distraught man was found was located exactly next to a large cross that is lit up during the holidays.
Spectator Trei Jackson, also interviewed by News Channel 8, said that the guy in trouble did not react to pleas for him to come down from the sign even after six hours, and that it was only when Jewell intervened that he complied with the requests.
"Ole' boy told him that Jesus loves you, basically, and that you ain't do no wrong, to come down, just ask for help. He came down," he said.
According to Tulsa Police, the man was taken to the hospital after he climbed down.
They explained to NewsOn6 that the man had descended from a bridge sign above I-244. He reportedly went up to the sign about 9 a.m., and did not come down until about 4 p.m.
Officer Andre Baul talked with the distraught guy for about one hour, with the assistance of fire authorities, and they made every effort not to press him much for details.
"We want to make sure we give them time. We don't want to rush the situation," he said adding that it's how they were trained.
After the talk, he said that the guy had contact with negotiators and that he was in distress due to continuing legal problems in his personal life.
"He was scared about the future, about what he was going to be facing once he came down," he shared.
