Peoria detective talks woman to safety when she threatened to jump off bridge

PEORIA, AZ (AZFamily) — A Peoria Police detective talked a woman down to safety Monday afternoon after she threatened to jump off an overpass while hanging onto a chain-link fence over the Loop 101.

The situation shut down the southbound lanes of the 101 at Grand Avenue for about an hour while Detective Frank Contreras, a trained crisis negotiator, talked the woman down to safety.

“Our primary mission is to preserve life at the end of the day; it doesn’t matter whose life it is,” Det. Contreras said.

The Valley native was driving home from work when he received the call to help the woman on the bridge. He was not wearing a body camera video at the time, so Arizona’s Family asked him what he did to save the woman.

“She had a story to tell — that was apparent. A lot of people just want