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Young man talks woman down off bridge, saves her life

Posted at 9:56 AM, Jul 11, 2019
and last updated 2019-07-11 11:56:26-04

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    Omaha, NE (WOWT) — A young man told 6 News today: He’s no hero. He said he convinced a distressed woman off a ledge on the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge on Tuesday night.

Ray’Veontae Harris says he recently had a friend die of suicide and that if he couldn’t be there for her, why not for a stranger?

While he was live streaming on his phone during his walk, he spotted a young woman in crisis. She was leaning over the edge.

“You OK? What’s wrong?” He turned his live stream away from the scene on towards himself. “I looked closer to her, and I saw tears. I knew this was a suicidal situation. She was standing on the rail and had her legs on the gate part. Nobody was helping her at all and people were walking past her.”

The 20-year-old said he knew in his heart he had to help. “I pulled her slowly down so she wouldn’t fall. I was trying to get her to calm down and tears were flowing. I’m just going to be here for her. She said, ‘You saved my life. You saved my life.’”

A day later, it’s hard for Ray’Veontae Harris to wrap his mind about the gravity of this.

“I just want to say like…”

He pauses and takes a deep breath.

“Her family was inboxing me saying, ‘Thank you so much. She got to come back home.’ Some people don’t get to make it back home. I’m just a regular person — just trying to be a better person than I was the day before. I’m no hero at all.”

Ray’Veontae Harris says he often takes walks across the bridge as a stress-reliever and says he kept thinking of ways to stay positive as he helped the woman.

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