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Middle school athletes credited with stopping attempted suicide

FRESNO, Calif. — A group of boys in Fresno are being heralded as a woman's heroes. She was seconds away from potentially committing suicide when the boys stepped in and talked her off a bridge.

The members of the Kepler School volleyball team were working out, jogging over the Tuolumne Street Bridge, when they saw a woman climb over the edge of the Stanislaus Street Bridge about 50 yards away. Brandon Ezell told KFSN that, "She was like, one hand, and feet hanging already."

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The boys ran to tell their coach, Elliot Murray. "They told me, 'There's a lady trying to jump off the bridge,' all 12 of them screaming, 'Call 911, call 911,'" said Murray.

Murray saw the woman dangling from the bridge, directly over the railroad tracks. He called 911 and told the boys to go back up and yell to the woman. "I immediately told the kids, 'Do everything you can, chant, say stop, your life is worth it,' and they just kept on chanting," said Murray. "We went up we were there for like ten minutes, trying to distract her," said Elijah Gomez. "We were like, 'Stop!' and stuff, 'It's not worth it.'"

The woman managed to pull herself up to safety and police arrived. "We contacted her, found out she was actually trying to commit suicide and the officer placed her on a mental health evaluation hold for 72 hours to be evaluated by mental health workers," said Lt. Mark Hudson. The woman is identified only as a 47-year-old Hispanic female.

Murray believes if not for the boys on his team, she would have let go. "By hearing those kids and she took a glance and hearing those kids it registered to her, 'I can't do this in front of them.' By kids shouting 'stop, stop, stop, your life is worth it,' she made it back to the top," said Murray.

It was an emotional event in the boys' young lives. "Crazy, very traumatizing. I never seen nothing like this, in my life," said Ezell.

The school had the boys talk with a psychologist about the incident.

Meanwhile, the woman was being held in a mental health facility.