Cop saves war veteran seconds before suicide attempt

Police received report of man threatening to leap off roof of home for the elderly.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
A police officer rescued an elderly war veteran from a suicide attempt in Kfar Saba on Saturday seconds before the man nearly jumped from the roof of a five-story building.
F.-Sgt. Oren Shon, 33, was with partner Snir Levi when they received a report from the police control room of a man threatening to leap off the roof of the home for the elderly where he lives.
As Levi remained on the street level to direct emergency services, Shon ran up five flights of stairs to the roof, and saw the man standing on the ledge, next to his wife who was trying to restrain him.
“He was trying to push his wife’s hand away, I saw that he was going to jump,” Shon told The Jerusalem Post. The officer sprinted towards the man and caught him. “I hugged him and brought him back to the roof,” he recalled.
The men spoke after the incident, and Shon learned that the man had participated in a number of wars and had suffered from psychological problems as a result.
“He’s a hero of Israel,” Shon said.
After ensuring that the man was under the close watch of social services, Shon gave the man his personal phone number and told him to call him whenever he wished.