Rescued Man by ‘Instinct,’ CHP Officer Says

A California Highway Patrolman who risked death to keep a suicidal man from leaping from an overcrossing into the northbound lanes of the San Gabriel River Freeway in Cerritos on Tuesday said he was inspired by “instinct,” rather than heroism.

Officer Mike Morris scaled an eight-foot safety fence to grab and hold the would-be jumper, who was perched on a six-inch-wide ledge outside the steel-mesh barrier on Del Amo Boulevard, about 30 feet above the freeway lanes.

Morris said he at first climbed the fence, straddled it and grabbed the man by his coat collar. But then, after the man tried to lunge out of the officer’s grasp, the veteran motorcycle patrolman lowered himself onto the narrow ledge and restrained him with his right arm.

CHP spokesman Lyle Whitten said both men would have been killed or gravely injured if they had fallen, even though all traffic on the lanes below them had been halted. He said Morris will be recommended for a commendation.

A Los Angeles County Fire Department ladder truck was used to bring the two men down from the overcrossing at 9:30 a.m. The incident had begun 38 minutes earlier.

The 40-year-old Paramount man was taken to Pioneer Hospital in Artesia for psychiatric evaluation.

Morris, 43, a 19-year CHP veteran, resumed his regular motorcycle patrol immediately after the dramatic rescue, but returned to the scene later to describe the episode.

“When I came back,” Morris said, “the first thing I did was look down there (to the freeway). It was an eerie feeling. It makes you wonder why you did what you did. Instinct, that’s all it was. Nothing heroic about it--just instinct.”

Morris said three unidentified civilian passers-by helped him. He said he held the man by the coat collar for about three minutes before the man “lunged forward in an attempt to jump.” Morris pulled him and held on with all his strength, he said.

Citizens Helped

“After I got him back against the fence,” Morris said, “I asked the citizens to lend me a hand--belts, ropes or anything to try to tie this man down. One citizen reached through (the narrow-mesh fence) with his fingers and pulled his coat through. . . . Another came up with a belt and managed to get it around his wrist. . . . Another came up with some twine.”

It was then that Morris dropped down the outside of the fence and stood beside the man, who was standing with his back to the fence. Morris, facing inward, threw his arm around the man and held him until firefighters arrived.

“When I was up there hanging onto him with one arm, it felt like it was forever,” Morris said. “My arm was swelling up, there was pain, I was sweating.”

Morris, nearly six feet tall and about 180 pounds, estimated that he was a couple of inches taller and 20 pound heavier than the man he rescued. The officer said he regularly works out with weights.

Little Worried

Although Morris said he felt fine, he was a little worried about his wife Carol’s reaction.

“I think she is going to be upset with what I did,” he said. “We’ve talked about these situations . . . and she’s said, ‘Don’t risk your life for somebody else. I need you here for me and the kids.’ ”

Morris, a Bellflower resident, has two teen-age daughters.