We’ve seen a lot of “bad cop” news lately, so seeing
something good is refreshing.
It seems like the bad stuff has been pervasive, and if
you’re like me, it’s hard to overcome. It weighs on me. Despite the passing of
time, I keep picturing the New York police officers choking Eric Garner for allegedly
selling untaxed cigarettes. I picture the video of the South Carolina officer
shooting Walter Scott in the back as Scott was running away. I picture the
Baltimore police giving Freddie Gray a “rough ride” that appears to have broken
his spine and killed him.
When you see these videos, it can be hard to have much faith
in police. The warm fuzzies are just not easy to conjure up. Yet enter a new video that you should see.
It features Detective Ken Carter, a 12-year veteran of the Evanston Police
Department, acting quickly and saving the life of a 22-year-old man who
appeared likely to jump from the top of a parking garage.
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| Det. Ken Carter speaking to WGN TV |
This happened over Memorial Day weekend in Evanston, Illinois
where I live. On Sunday May 24 about 5 p.m., Detective Carter was off duty. He
was out to dinner at a Chili’s Restaurant with his fiancé. As they left the
restaurant at Maple Avenue and Clark Street, his fiancé spotted a man standing on a ledge of a nearby parking structure, some 70 feet
above the street.
Carter called his fellow Evanston Police officers, who
arrived quickly. They made a plan in which Carter played a key role and managed
to pull the young man to safety.
Several Chicago news outlets carried this story following a
press release from the Evanston Police department. When I saw Carter’s picture
in the newspaper and on WGN-TV, I realized that I see him often at the gym
where I work out. We don’t know each other, but I recognized him. I often see
him talking to people, smiling and then getting down to business with his
exercise routine.
Carter is clearly a fitness guy – a weight lifter. He’s not
one of those stereotypical police officers you might picture in the doughnut
shop. As a former journalist covering crime in Chicago for several years, I saw
plenty of the big-around-the middle officers who certainly were ill-equipped to
give any offender a decent chase around the block.
Detective Carter, on the other hand, is a former Marine and
member of the Illinois National Guard. He looks like he could chase a bad guy
down, tackle him, handcuff him and read him his rights without breaking much of
a sweat.
His fitness certainly paid off as did his quick thinking and
action. Once on sixth floor of the parking garage, Detective Carter scurried in
a crouched position along the base of a short concrete wall toward where the
young man stood on the ledge. Carter
moved swiftly, out of view from the young man, while his uniformed colleagues
spoke to the man, trying to get him to step down.
Carter said that the young man had thrown his cell phone and
wallet down to the street. It appeared he was ready to jump. Without much time
to react or waste, Detective Carter closed in, jumped to grab the man and held
on while his fellow officers raced in to help.
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| Security camera footage of the May 24 rescue |
Detective Carter told the Chicago Tribune, "I said a
prayer, and once I got close enough, I grabbed him and held him and the
assisting officers managed to get him off the ledge." He added, “When I
grabbed him he kind of lurched forward. I held on for life. It took the
assistance of my co-workers to get him off. It was a struggle. He was very
upset. He did not want to come off the ledge.”
You can watch a grainy security camera video of the rescue on YouTube (during the first minute, nothing happens, so jump
forward to the 1-minute mark of the 2-minute video).
As you will see, the plan worked. Not only did he save the young man’s life, but through his
action, Carter saved others down on the street who also may have been injured.
He saved bystanders coming out of restaurants and stores from seeing the
disturbing image of a man jump 70 feet to his death on a crowded street.
What an awful sight that certainly would have been. I have been to that parking garage on
Maple Avenue a thousand times. My wife and I walk with our two daughters past
that garage constantly. It’s by the movie theater and several popular
restaurants.
Detective Carter acted bravely. To me, what he did was
heroic, and it’s something that the Evanston Police Department and the City of
Evanston should recognize and thank him for. Would everyone do what Detective
Carter did – especially on their day off?
As an Evanston resident, I know I feel proud of him. The next
time I see him at the gym, I’ll make sure to tell him in person.
Odd Footnote: At
the top of the parking garage on Maple Avenue in Evanston where this distraught
young man intended to jump is a massive iron sculpture. The sculpture is long
beam that spans across the top of the 6-storey, 600-space parking garage. On
each end of the beam is an iron silhouette of a person…balancing sort of like a
tight-rope walker.
The sculpture certainly is unique and it draws the attention
of onlookers below. As I looked up at it a few days ago, I couldn’t help but
wonder: Was it suggestive to the extent that it inspired this troubled young
man to step up to the garage’s top floor and nearly jump?
Obviously, I don’t know. People are going to do what they’re
doing to do. Maybe it’s an outlandish thing to even consider. But I think it’s
worth the City of Evanston, in light of this near tragic event, to ask the
question of whether in this case life imitating art might be reason enough to consider
a change to the public garage that it owns. 
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