A woman who attempted to jump to her death from the 21st floor of the Towson Towers condominium was caught in midair and pulled to safety by three Baltimore County officers, police reported.
The woman, whose name was not disclosed, was undergoing psychiatric evaluation at a hospital, police said.
The incident began about 4:45 a.m. yesterday when a relative of the woman, believed to be in her 40s, received an unusual call at his Cockeysville home and phoned police.
While Officer Eric Keen of the Cockeysville Precinct was at the relative's home investigating the call, the woman called again and told the relative she was going to commit suicide by jumping off her balcony.
After getting a key to the woman's apartment from the relative, Officer Keen notified the Towson Precinct and met Officers Joseph Yeater and Victor Epps at the 27-story building about 5 a.m. and all three took the elevator to the 21st floor.
Upon hearing noises in the apartment, Officer Yeater talked to the woman through the door in an attempt to evaluate her moves and tried to console her. In the meantime, the officers could hear the woman piling furniture against her door.
When the woman's threats to jump increased in emotion and it appeared she was going to make good on her threat, the officers unlocked the door and began shoving it open against the weight of several pieces of heavy furniture.
As the door opened, the woman was seen running from a room toward the balcony. A sliding glass door was open but its sliding screen closed.
With the officers a few feet behind her, police said, the woman ran through the screen door, knocking part of it off its track.
Once on the balcony, the woman jumped over the railing and was falling when Officer Yeater reached out and grabbed her by the back of the neck and her sweater.
Despite her slight build, police said, the woman's weight and momentum caused the sweater to come free of Officer Yeater's grasp, but with his other hand he still had a hold on her neck. As she dangled only by that grasp 21 floors above a driveway on the building's east side, Officers Keen and Epps leaned over the balcony railing and together grabbed onto the woman's legs, pulling her from certain death.
In the apartment, the officers consoled the woman and called an ambulance, which took her to a hospital.
Police declined to reveal detailed reasons for the woman's actions, saying only that her attempt to kill herself was the result of a domestic situation.
The three officers "did a hell of a job," said a colleague.