Last night, Wednesday night — Josh Trujillo, a colleague I greatly admire and used to work with at the Seattle P-I (he still does on SeattlePi.com as a photographer) tweeted live about seeing a woman hop a rail on the Aurora Bridge, in an attempt to jump. He called 911.
Reading his tweets this morning, the story ends without tragedy at about 9:30 p.m.: “Good news. Young girl on Aurora Bridge is over the rail, back on the safe side. Police boats leaving from under bridge. Amen.”
His tweets about her began about 13 hours ago, about 7:30 p.m.: “No. A girl is on the Aurora Bridge about to jump. My heart is sinking. Police not here yet.”
I know Josh, so I know how sincere he is, so I don’t question how hard this must have been for him. This is a guy who was in the Army and deployed overseas before he was a photographer. He’s a consummate professional and he’s also a family man.
The irony is, the state is installing an anti-suicide fence on the bridge, have been for awhile.
Part of Josh’s reporting shocked: “Woman on Fremont Bridge who said she was waiting in traffic for an hour just said “jump already,” loudly. Crowd upset at her.”
He showed self-consciousness at what he was seeing, and reporting: “In the news media we rarely report suicides or attempts at suicide. I feel really uncomfortable tweeting this one. This is awful.”
But he also revealed, “FYI, I used to live under the I-5 Ship Canal Bridge. A jumper once landed in my yard. That was a terrible day. Hope today is better,” and conversed with our news partner’s executive editor, the Seattle Times’ David Boardman: “@dlboardman I have to agree that this is strange ground & I have been uncomfortable reporting it. But I also saw her hop rail & called 911.”
What do you think, readers?
21 responses so far ↓
1 Cassandra // Aug 19, 2010 at 9:19 am
I am so glad to read this! I was rowing on Lake Union yesterday and saw the poor girl on the edge of the bridge when we returned to the dock. The police hustled us out of the water and off the dock should they need to use it. All night I wondered about her fate. I am relieved. I agree with the media’s choice not to “sensationalize” suicides or attempts but am so glad that Josh tweeted about this. I am sure there were other witnesses that are relieved to know that there was a positive ending to this tragic event. Peace!
2 foleymo // Aug 19, 2010 at 9:21 am
I think he did the right thing. How are we supposed to talk about and take on these kinds of community problems if the news media just pretends that they don’t exist.
Thanks for your courage, Josh! And I’m glad this event had a happy ending.
3 Jon // Aug 19, 2010 at 10:08 am
I sat in traffic from 7:45 to 8:45 last night because of this. Through some investigative texting I learned it was a jumper about midway through my wait. My initial response was, “Godammit I’m late for my date, they couldn’t have installed that fence sooner?”. After creeping past the scene and seeing the girl on the other side of the rail I felt like an insensitive prick. I’ve seen plenty of screwed up stuff, but that was new… The first drink of the night went down pretty quick.
Thank you Josh for letting us know that she didn’t do it. That couldn’t have been easy but in doing so you’ve made my morning.
4 Fremontmimi // Aug 19, 2010 at 10:33 am
I watched the girl cling to the outside of the railing from my deck last night, until it got dark and I couldn’t see her anymore. I was literally trying to will her back over to the other side. It was heartbreaking. And on such a beautiful evening…
There’s good reason the news media doesn’t report on suicides; suicide rates have been shown to decrease after blackouts on suicide reporting have been enacted. To put it simply, suicides cause suicides. And so does that bridge.
That said, when I saw on the Ballard blog forum last night that this episode ended well, I cried from relief. And much as I love the view from the bridge, the thing is a suicide beacon - they can’t build that fence fast enough.
5 MissBeth // Aug 19, 2010 at 10:59 am
This whole thing broke my heart.
I think Josh handled it with just the right amount of reverence.
It made me sad to learn he once saw a body after it landed in his yard…it’s an image I’m sure will NEVER leave him.
The people who just complained about missing something while stuck…well when it comes time to meet their maker they’ll have so ’splainin to do!!
6 Kris // Aug 19, 2010 at 11:01 am
I also witnessed the young woman standing on the wrong side of the rail (from the Burke-Gilman below). The police pushed us away, and I worried all night about the final outcome. I googled “Aurora bridge” repeatedly last night, but there was nothing. So I was very relieved to find this today.
To the young woman on the rail, if you happen upon this page: thank you for not jumping. You did the right thing. If you ever find yourself in that much pain again, please reach out to someone or call the suicide prevention hotline: 1-800-SUICIDE.
7 ch // Aug 19, 2010 at 11:02 am
I understand why there is a news blackout about suicide jumpers but I am so relieved to learn she didn’t jump. We passed the scene by car last night. I was hoping that all the cop cars weren’t the result of a possible suicide but then we passed what was clearly a young girl on the other side of the bridge looking down at the water. It was heartbreaking. I knew there wouldn’t be a news report but I searched the web in vain hoping to find that someone had blogged about a good ending. It didn’t find it until this morning. Thank you.
8 robZ // Aug 19, 2010 at 11:14 am
Could it have been the same girl as I saw on June 25?
http://zverina.com/2010/0625.htm
A week after that there was a yellow scarf tied to rail where she had stood, and a little round mirror cemented to concrete post with word “forgive” written on it.
9 johnL // Aug 19, 2010 at 11:42 am
+ 1 for writing about this, thanks. I think we all wanted to hear she hadn’t jumped. I can’t wait for the fence to go up. Suicide is so sad and I really feel for those who think there is no hope.
Thanks again for the reporting and commenting, Seattle.
10 Laurie // Aug 19, 2010 at 1:04 pm
I, too, saw this from a boat right below her as the police boats were arriving. I am very relieved to hear she is ok. It was a heartwrenching scene to be sure. Thanks for letting us know.
11 Christina Bertges // Aug 19, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Thanks for reporting on this!
I must say that I am dumbfounded to hear about the insensitive sack of excrement that told her to “Jump already!”.
My Grandma said it best…”People are no damn good!”
12 bobby // Aug 19, 2010 at 1:09 pm
I witnessed this scene from the burke-gilman trail yesterday. I did do an internet search to see if I could find any news. I came across an interesting article written in The Stranger -
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/jumpers/Content?oid=3664
I agree with this viewpoint. You should be able to do whatever you want as long as you aren’t hurting anyone else or interfering with the lives of others; get an abortion, marry whomever you want, take your own life - that should be your right…just don’t cause a traffic jam when you do it.
13 Shawn // Aug 19, 2010 at 1:46 pm
So, Bobby, you think if someone takes their own life they’re not hurting somebody else? Really? Will you be so cavalier when it’s your friend or loved one?
14 AJ // Aug 19, 2010 at 1:58 pm
I was in a crew boat directly below her. My eight arrived just as the first police boat arrived. The police stopped us and we quickly turned around and went back to Lake Union. I will never forget looking up right into her face as she stood on the water side of the rail. We saw her silhouetted against the bridge almost the entire way back to the boat house.
Thank you for tweeting she is OK. It was the scariest, saddest, and most awful moment of my life. I’m so glad she didn’t jump.
15 Tiktok // Aug 19, 2010 at 2:02 pm
I hope she either gets help, or moves quicker next time, taking care to land away from anyone’s home.
16 Eric // Aug 19, 2010 at 3:37 pm
I was riding home on a Metro bus while this was going on. I saw a number of people gathered on the Fremont Bridge while we drove over it, looking up at the Aurora Bridge. I also saw the police boats gathered under the Aurora Bridge. My best guess was that there was a suicide attempt in progress up there, but couldn’t see well enough due to the darkness and distance.
I understand the desire not to inadvertently encourage suicide by reporting on it too often. Even so, I was happy to be able to get on Twitter when I got home to find out what was going on, and more importantly that the girl involved did not end up jumping. If Josh Trujillo (or someone else) hadn’t tweeted about it, I might still be wondering what happened.
17 Rose H // Aug 19, 2010 at 5:52 pm
We are new residents in the houseboat community near the LWRC dock, outside of which sat the fire engine with the paramedics standing by in case she jumped. I was pretty certain she hadn’t once I heard a few boats signaling the Fremont Bridge to open around 9:30 but I was muttering prayers all evening that she would turn around and reach out for help. I didn’t know about the blackout of suicide stories so I’m very grateful to Josh to know for certain that she’s still alive. From reading this blog, there are a lot more people who were genuinely concerned about her than the insensitive idiot who thought she should just get it over with. I hope she knows someday that even though none of us knew her, we all very much wanted her to stay alive.
18 Someone // Aug 20, 2010 at 9:59 am
Agree with bobby and tiktok; do whatever you want with your life, it’s your business. Just don’t be so inconsiderate as to ruin the evenings of 1000 people stuck in traffic because of your worthless, attention-whoring plea for help
19 SomeoneIsAJerk // Aug 20, 2010 at 10:10 am
STFU, Someone. Take your callous, shallow comments somewhere else.
20 Tiktok // Aug 20, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Not only are the suicides a blackout, the blackout on suicide stories is a blackout!
Hopefully, after the fence is built, police won’t respond to calls about would-be jumpers. I mean, the fence is too tall and difficult for someone to climb. Or better be, for $10M. Maybe top it with razor wire?
21 morbore // Aug 20, 2010 at 7:41 pm
everyone should link their comment names to their facebook pages so we can get a good look at people who leave such negative comments.
people can do what ever they want with their lives? what if that was your little sister on there? i hope your tone would change.
(you are stoked for internet-anonymity)
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