Hero Uses Coors Light to Talk Suicidal Man Off Highway Overpass

On Wednesday Kwame Anderson was riding shotgun in a Coors Light truck, making deliveries with Jason Gabel when the two saw a man hanging onto the outside fence of the I94 overpass. Immediately pulling over and called 911. When they realized the man was suicidal, Anderson channeled Denzel Washington in Inside Man to make a connection with the troubled man and coax him back over the edge.

In attempting to make a connection, he offered the man food or money and finally, he pulled a 12 pack from the back of the truck. Anderson said he could feel the tension from the troubled man when the white police officers arrived on the scene. He told Fox 9 news that he and his partner could talk this man off the ledge.

Anderson worked to connect with the man, who said he originally came from Chicago. Anderson sympathized about rough neighborhoods, saying he grew up in St. Paul’s Eastside. For an hour, Anderson kept talking to the man.

Finally, he ran back to the truck and pulled out a 12 pack. Offering to share a drink convinced the man to walk back over the edge of the fence.

First responders intercepted the man as he came back over the fence, before he could have that cold one, and immediately took him for evaluation at St. Region’s Hospital.

Police praised the work of Anderson and Gabel for their assistance. Anderson told the man that when he feels better, he should come to one of Anderson’s comedy shows and promised to make good on that beer.

• Comedian talks down man threatening to jump from St. Paul overpass [PiPress]
• Delivery men use beer to save man’s life in St. Paul, Minn. [Fox9]
• Kwamedy Show [YouTube]