Paul Bass File Photo
Angela Watley.
The man called 911 to say that he was on the side of a bridge and ready to jump.
“I gotta go,” the man said.
“You can’t go right now. I’m talking to you,” responded the voice on the other line.
That call came in Thursday morning from the bridge near Ella T. Grasso Boulevard and Kimberly Avenue, overlooking the city’s firefighter academy.
It came in to 20-year veteran call taker Angela Watley near the end of her midnight-to‑8 a.m. shift at the city’s 911 center.
At first, Watley didn’t know if the caller was referring to his mental state, or to the fact that he was actually perched on a small ledge of the bridge and possibly tired of holding on.
But she knew that if she could get him engaged, keep him talking, she might be able to help save his life.
She proceeded to do that, for 45 intense minutes.
Watley encouraged and pled with the 50-year-old man over the phone to just keep talking to her about his upcoming birthday, his brother, as police officers and firefighters raced to a scene that she couldn’t see.
“What stands about this call is that Dispatcher Watley took control of the call and relied on her training,” city 911 center Director Michael Briscoe said. “She immediately made enough of a connection with the caller to provide a calming presence on the telephone. Angela remained engaged with the caller, and establishing this presence was critical to the outcome of this potentially tragic event.”
“Aries Are Stronger Than That”
In the first part of the man’s call, a recording of which was obtained by the Independent, Watley can be heard diligently trying to nail down where exactly the man was and what he was wearing so the information could be relayed to first responders.
Watley asked the man his location repeatedly to make sure she understood. She also tried to glean more information about the man, who he was and how serious he was about jumping.
During a phone interview later Thursday, Watley said once she quickly realized he was serious and possibly inebriated, her script went out the window.
“There really is no script you can follow,” she said. “You have to feel the person out really and use your instinct.”
Brother Invoked
Watley: K? K? Listen to this. K, where do you live?
Caller K: I don’t live nowhere right now.
Watley: You don’t live nowhere right now?
Caller K: No.
Watley: So what you been doing all night?
Caller K: Thinking about how to kill myself.
Watley: Huh?
Caller K: Thinking about how to kill myself.
Watley: You were thinking about how to?
Caller K: Yeah.
Watley: But what’s going to happen with your brother if you leave?
Caller K: He’ll be fine.
Watley: No he won’t. He’s going to miss you.
Aries Rising
As the call wore on, Watley switched tactics and started quizzing the man for more personal information, asking him about his age and his birth date.
When he said it was April 10, she seized on that information.
“Something I always do is ask people about their birthday sign,” Watley later said.
The man’s upcoming birthday meant he was an Aries like her. She used his upcoming birthday to coax him to hold on a little while longer.
Watley: K? You’re an Aries. You’re stronger than that. My birthday is right by yours.
Caller K: [unintelligible].
Watley: No you’re not. No you’re not. No you’re not. Come on let’s pull it together ‘cause your birthday’s coming up. What? You’re going to be 51?
Caller K: Yeah.
Watley: And see my birthday is coming up. I’m going to be 52.
Watley said during the later interview that though her birthday is this Saturday, she’s actually turning 60, not 52.
Train “Ticket” Coming
Caller K: God bless you.
Watley: So we can hang out or something. Do something. Life is short. We can have fun.
Caller K: That’s why I want to make my life short.
Watley: No. You’re not going to do that either, because guess what? Everything changes. Next month when your birthday comes, you’ll have a new start all over again. So we can always do this. Summertime is coming up. The weather is getting nice. And you can be OK.
Caller K: There is a train coming by, and it’s going to be my ticket.
Watley: No it’s not your ticket either because — did you purchase a ticket?
Caller K: No, I’m going to jump on it.
Watley: No you’re not going to jump on it. You’re supposed to be stronger than that, Aries friend. Come on now, I know…. Have you been through worse than this? You’ve survived right?
Caller K: Yeah.
Watley: OK then. Cut it out. Let’s talk about doing something spectacular for your birthday.
Caller K: I gotta go.
Watley: No you don’t have to go. Where you going? You called me to talk to me, K. Why don’t you talk to me? What’s your last name?
Caller K: Gotta go.
Cops, Firefighters Arrive
Around that time, first responders started arriving at the scene.
The caller told Watley he saw a police officer. She encouraged him to just keep talking to her. He never hung up on her.
A fence separated the cops from the caller, who had somehow found his way to the precipice. Cops reached through the fence, tried to hold onto his clothes. They had trouble keeping their grip.
Watley knew if she could just keep him talking and maintain the personal connection they were building, the man might not jump.
Caller K: Can I go now?
Watley: No you can’t go now. I want to talk to you. Are we going to have this good party for your birthday or what?
Caller K: What’s your name?
Watley: Angie.
Caller K: It’s a nice name, Angie.
Watley: Thank you. Yours is a nice name too. Are you going to let me keep calling you … what do you want me to call you?
Caller K: I gotta go.
Watley: You can’t go right now. I’m talking to you.
As first responders pinpointed his location, someone could be heard asking, “Hey buddy. You all right?”
Watley’s caller said he wanted to put down the phone and put up his hands. She encouraged him to keep talking to her.
Under the direction of Lt. Rafael Zayas, firefighters had driven a truck under the bridge. Rookie firefighters Corey Brown and Patrick Schieffle climbed up to rescue the man.
Watley: Try to pull yourself up so we can get you there. And we can celebrate your birthday. It’s in a couple of weeks. Don’t make me have to come out there.
First responders in the background: No, don’t do that. Don’t put your feet up. Hold your feet up.
Caller K: Let me go. Let me go. Please.
Watley: Come on, K.
Caller K: Let me go. Let me go please. I’m so tired of life. Just leave me alone. I just want to find joy.
First responders: We’re here to help you.
And they did.
The Dam Breaks
As the rescue proceeded, Watley calmly coaxed the caller to cooperate. There were no tremors or signs of nervousness in her voice during the call.
Then the man was safe. Watley’s work was done.
Watley went outside to take a much-needed cigarette break — and the emotions started to flow.
She decided to go to the scene of the rescue. She hoped to see her caller, but didn’t want to cry in front of him.
When she arrived, the man was already in an ambulance, headed to the hospital for observation. Watley saw the small ledge he had been clinging to while they’d been on the phone for 45 minutes.
She tapped the nearest first responder, asked for a hug and burst into tears.
“They always call me ‘the social worker,’” Watley said later. “There is a lot of time pressure to move calls along, especially medical calls, but this wasn’t one of those calls you could just move along.”
She said the firefighters and police officers who responded “did a wonderful job.”
Jerry Maguire
Briscoe said the same can be said for Watley.
He said handling a potential suicide is a rare event in the career of a dispatcher. In her 20 years Watley has handled a couple other suicide calls, with no loss of life.
“Training or otherwise, there is no way to predict the outcome of a call like this,” Briscoe said. “There is no way to gauge the level of crisis someone is in. What we hope is that all calls contain the authentic personal connection that was established in this event with someone. In this event it was with Dispatcher Watley.
“Dispatcher Watley empowered the caller. The one question asked in a tone of empathy, concern and support that continually resonates is that of Dispatcher Watley’s petition to the caller, ‘Are you going to help them help you?,’ as she heard the arrival of the first responders in the background.”
Watley (who forged an independent run for mayor in 2009) said she borrowed that line from the movie Jerry Maguire. “All I kept thinking about was that line where he says, ‘Help me help you,’” she said with a chuckle.
When her shift ended on the day of the call, she made one more attempt to go see her caller in the hospital. She still was unable to meet him because he was in the intensive care unit.
“This is what we do,” Watley said of the 911 job. “What we do is overlooked a lot, but I work with a great group of girls, especially on the night shift. They’re a really special group of people.”
She said people often minimize her work, chalking it up to sitting behind a desk and answering the phone.
“It’s much more than that,” she said. “Anytime you get out of your bed at midnight to go to work, it’s going to be more than that, but I enjoy my job.”