When Deputy Kenneth Delaune risked his own life to keep a woman from jumping off of the Hale Boggs Bridge, it wasn’t the skyscraper-like height that worried him, but the potential tumble into the Mississippi.
Delaune, who was recently recognized as the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office 2007 Deputy of the Year, just remembers the thought of that fall echoing throughout his mind as he tried to restrain the woman as she hung over the guardrail.
“I’m not afraid of heights, but I was afraid of falling,” Delaune said. “My mike was hanging off and I felt like we were both close to going over the edge.”
Instead, Delaune was able to pull the woman back over the railing and handcuff her, saving both of their lives in the process.
Delaune had come upon the woman when he was transporting an arrestee to the Nelson Coleman Correctional Center. Earlier in the day, the sheriff’s department had received a call stating that a woman driving a black 1998 Honda Accord was suicidal and may attempt to jump off of the Hale Boggs Bridge. When dispatch put out an alert saying that a black vehicle was parked on the southbound shoulder of the bridge, Delaune, who was a mile away, told them that he could take the call.
When Delaune arrived at the scene, he observed a woman standing near the guardrail and staring at the river. After making sure that his prisoner was secure, Dealune exited the car and approached the woman and repeatedly tried to contact her. When he got no response, Delaune looked closer and noticed that the woman was wearing earplugs. Eventually though, the woman took notice of the deputy and lunged towards the guardrail.
That’s when Delaune reacted by sprinting towards the woman and securing her with his left hand. His right hand hung to the guardrail and he was able to pull the woman back from over the edge of the bridge.
Though the woman kept on resisting him, and even tried to run into traffic after she was handcuffed, Delaune kept control of the situation until other units arrived. After transporting his prisoner, Delaune then checked in with other units to make sure the woman was ok.
“I assumed the worst, but hoped for the best,” Delaune said of the situation. “It’s an honor to receive the award, but everybody assisted or did something to save that woman’s life. To me, it’s just work and I enjoy it everyday.”
Plus, Delaune says events like this are the reason he got into law enforcement in the first place.
“The ability to help people is what drove me to this job,” he said. “That’s something I’ve always been interested in.”
Delaune credits his safety training with the fact that both he and the woman made it out of that terrible situation alive.
“I have excellent supervisors and they really stress officer safety,” Delaune, who moved his vehicle off the shoulder and turned on his caution lights before attempting to approach the woman, said.
Sheriff Greg Champagne, in turn, is happy that Delaune was driven into the arms of the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office.
“We are very fortunate and excited to have officers like officer Delaune,” Champagne, who chose Delaune as the officer of the year, said. “He realized that he had to do something to save that woman’s life and he did it without thinking twice.”
The officers at the department are just as proud.
“Everybody kept telling me ‘good catch,'” Delaune said with a grin.
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