Suicidal subject talked back from ledge of 91 Freeway overpass in Riverside
Re-Published: June 11, Due to technical glitch with original article.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A man who officials say was “obviously experiencing a mental health crisis” was talked back from the ledge of a freeway overpass where he was found with a cord wrapped around his neck in Riverside Tuesday afternoon, June 8th.
City of Riverside Police Department officials later credited the successful save to their Emergency Negotiations Team (ENT), as well as their Community Behavioral Health Assessment Team (CBAT), which consists of two specially trained police officers who are partnered with two County of Riverside clinical therapists.
The officers and therapists ride together in the same patrol car and respond to calls for law enforcement service involving mental health issues throughout the city, according to officials who have said, “At each call they handle, the therapist takes the lead role in evaluating the behavioral health issue while the officer provides the safety over-watch and law enforcement expertise.”
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City of Riverside police officers and other emergency personnel were dispatched to the 91 Freeway overpass at University Avenue after the City’s Public Safety Communications Center began receiving multiple calls of a man sitting on the ledge of the overpass, overlooking University Avenue.
Members of the Department’s Emergency Negotiations Team (ENT), and Community Behavioral Health Assessment Team (CBAT) also responded and assumed primary roles in the man’s eventual rescue.
When officials arrived they found the man sitting on the edge of the bridge, with his feet dangling above University Avenue. The distraught man also had a cord wrapped around his neck.
An ENT officer spent the next thirty minutes negotiating with the man, eventually calming him down and convincing him to move off and away from the freeway ledge.
Once away from the overpass’s ledge, the man was safely detained without incident, at which time a clinical therapist with the CBAT Team assessed him and took him to a local mental health facility for further evaluation and treatment.
“(He) was obviously experiencing a mental health crisis,” officials later explained; adding, “If you or someone you know needs to be connected with mental health services, please call the CARES line at (800) 499-3008.”
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Trevor Montgomery, 49, moved in 2017 to the Intermountain area of Shasta County from Riverside County and runs Riverside County News Source (RCNS) and Shasta County News Source (SCNS).
Additionally, he writes or has written for several other news organizations; including Riverside County-based newspapers Valley News, Valley Chronicle, Anza Valley Outlook, and Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle; the Bonsall/Fallbrook Village News in San Diego County; and Mountain Echo in Shasta County. He is also a regular contributor to Thin Blue Line TV and Law Enforcement News Network and has had his stories featured on news stations throughout the Southern California and North State regions.
Trevor spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as an Orthopedic Specialist before joining the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 1998. He was medically retired after losing his leg, breaking his back, and suffering both spinal cord and brain injuries in an off-duty accident. (Click here to see segment of Discovery Channel documentary of Trevor’s accident.)
During his time with the sheriff’s department, Trevor worked at several different stations; including Robert Presley Detention Center, Southwest Station in Temecula, Hemet/Valle Vista Station, Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center, and Lake Elsinore Station; along with other locations.
Trevor’s assignments included Corrections, Patrol, DUI Enforcement, Boat and Personal Water-Craft based Lake Patrol, Off-Road Vehicle Enforcement, Problem Oriented Policing Team, and Personnel/Background Investigations. He finished his career while working as a Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Investigator and was a court-designated expert in child abuse and child sex-related crimes.
Trevor has been married for more than 30 years and was a foster parent to more than 60 children over 13 years. He is now an adoptive parent and his “fluid family” includes 13 children and 18 grandchildren.