Suicide Attempt at Comicon 2013 (Failed)

AZgirl480 · #1 ● 07-21-2013, 01:33 AM

San Diego Comic-Con is a yearly event where fans get to dress up and pretend to be superheroes, but this year a team of stuntmen really did come to the rescue of a person in need.

On Thursday, a team of professionals from the appropriately named company Stunts 911 were in a parking lot situated next to a condominium building in downtown San Diego. In a phone conversation with Yahoo! Movies on Saturday, stunt coordinator Gregg Sergeant said they were on a scaffolding about 30 feet in the air prepping a stunt for a party for the film "Kick-Ass 2" where they would light someone on fire when they first saw a woman standing on the outside railing of a balcony on the 14th floor in an apparent suicide attempt.

Crowds assembled on the ground, at first believing it to be a promotional stunt for Comic-Con. But when it was clear that she was genuinely in danger, the Los Angeles Times reports onlookers shouted out "Don't do it! Don't jump!"

Sergeant, along with fellow stuntmen Scott Schecter and Amus Carver, dashed across the lot to the building's security office. Finding it was locked, they scaled the fence to get to the tower. They were met by security guards from the building, and the men told them what floor they had spotted the woman on.

Taking the elevator to the 14th floor, they found the correct room with the door unlocked. He said they could see her standing on the rim of the railing through the patio's glass door. He said they were able to get out onto the patio without her noticing, and then he grabbed her from behind and held her while the other two got a safety harness secured around her. Then they dragged her over the railing and back into the room. Sergeant told Yahoo! Movies, "It seemed like she was very drunk. She was crying and hysterical."

The uninjured woman was taken to UC San Diego Medical Center for evaluation. Sergeant, who has worked as a stunt performer on big Hollywood productions like "Gangster Squad" and the "Pirates of the Caribbean" sequels, said they cut the rescue as close as anything you'd see in a movie. He said, "There's no doubt in my mind if we had come two seconds later, she would have been gone."

San Diego police officer Lt. Kevin Mayer told The San Diego Union-Tribune that the stuntmen truly put themselves in harm's way when they attempted their rescue. He said the woman had been drinking and was distraught after a breakup. Police Mayer said, "They were the perfect guys to be there at that time... It was very dangerous. I've seen attempted suicides when someone grabs them and is pulled over."