Local heroes: Man saved by strangers and two Spanish Fort police officers after jumping off Tensaw River Bridge

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    Spanish Fort, AL (WALA) — A group of strangers bound by their courage, dropping everything to save a man who, Spanish Fort police say, was in mental distress when he jumped off of the Tensaw River Bridge into Mobile Bay in a suicide attempt on July 5th.

“What he had to be going through to bring him to that point… just to reach out and help someone that obviously needed some help,” said Tammy Deese.

Because of their quick thinking, a story that could have easily ended so tragically that day, didn’t.

Tammy Deese, Herdis Watkins and two others were fishing nearby off of Battleship Parkway and saw the man jump in.

Without a second thought, Watkins called police and grabbed a rope from his truck to keep the man from drifting off, or even worse, drowning.

“I put it around his neck initially because he was not responding and so my concern was to make sure he didn’t go under, so I didn’t put it tight, but just enough to maintain his head above the water,” said Watkins.

Once officers Stephen McGuff and Jeffrey Josey got there they were able to get the rope around his body, the six of them pulling him out together.

“For people that never met each other a day in their life, to be able to come together like that, it shows a good human nature. It shows the good,” said Officer Josey.

Officers say the man called days later thanking them and the four others involved for saving his life.

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