SMYRNA, Ga. — A Smyrna K-9 officer is being commended by his peers for preventing a U.S. Navy veteran from attempting suicide over Memorial Day weekend.
Smyrna Police said K-9 Officer Daniel Sperano, a member of the department’s Special Operations Unit, was working an off-duty job at the Race Trac in Mableton when a concerned person told him a man was standing on a nearby bridge and acting strangely.
Officer Sperano went to talk to the man, who was on the bridge at Veterans Memorial Highway and Riverdale Road. The man told him he “wanted to die” and was going to jump into the Chattahoochee River, according to police.
Body camera video from the scene captured the moment.
Veteran: "I just want to go man."
Sperano: "No sir."
Veteran: "This ain't got anything to do with you, man."
Sperano: "I know it don't have nothing to do with me."
Sperano grabbed the veteran and the two men struggled for over three minutes as the veteran “pleaded with Sperano to let him die,” according to the release.
Sperano: "Ain't going to let you go today. Today ain't your time. The good Lord sent me here to help you out because somebody cared about you."
Officer Sperano is a U.S. Army combat veteran himself. The department said he never gave up on the veteran and was able to subdue him until help could arrive.
He tried to be a friend for a fellow vet even as the much larger man tried to lean over the river.
"I just wrapped him up in a big hug kind of thing and just rolled over with him. He fell on the ground," Sperano later said during a press conference. "I fell on top of him and I put him in handcuffs just to stop him from doing anything else irrational."
Now, safely off the bridge, Sperano hopes they can meet again soon.
"I hope I eventually get to speak to him and see him and hopefully we can have a rather normal conversation.
“K-9 Officer Sperano’s quick thinking, compassion, and disregard to personal harm has made him worthy of a nomination for the Smyrna Police Department’s Medal of Honor and Life Saving awards,” said Smyrna Police in a release.
Veterans who are in crisis or having thoughts of suicide, and those who know a Veteran in crisis, can contact the Veterans Crisis Line for confidential support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Call 800-273-8255 and press 1, send a text message to 838255 or chat online at VeteransCrisisLine.net/Chat.
MORE HEADLINES |