ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (CBS) — An Atlantic City police officer is being hailed as a hero for stopping a suicidal man from jumping from the top of a casino parking garage. Dramatic body camera footage shows Officer Eric Knuttel, a five-year veteran, pulling the distraught man from the ledge of the 13-story-high Claridge parking garage on Wednesday night.

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In this Monday, Sept. 9, 2019 photo, investigators from the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office examine the scene where a handcuffed man who was detained as a suicide risk broke free of deputies on the top level of a casino parking garage and jumped to his death at the Graton Resort and Casino's parking garage in Rohnert Park, Calif. A 21-year-old Pennsylvania man committed suicide by driving his car off the top level of a parking garage at a casino, police said. Which occurred at around 9 a.m. On Tuesday at the Sands. Apr 29, 2019 at 8:41 PM A Bethlehem man jumped to his death Friday from the upper levels of the parking deck at the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem, city police Chief Mark DiLuzio said. The body of William L. Mauldin III was discovered Aug. 2, 1999, in a swath of rocky dirt next to New York-New York hotel-casino's 10-story parking garage. In the 32-year-old disc jockey's pocket.

The 33-year-old officer spoke exclusively with CBS3.

To his death Monday night from the top level of a parking garage at the Ameristar Casino, police said.

“You could just hear in his voice he was distraught and he was hurting,” Knuttel said.

According to Atlantic City Police, the Pleasantville Police Department reached out to them that a suicidal man was in Atlantic City and threatening to jump from the bridge.

Knuttel, a member of the department’s Crisis Negotiation Team, located the distressed man sitting on a ledge at the top of the garage and began engaging him to talk him down.

“We had a fairly long conversation. We were going to try to build rapport with him, so he knew somebody cared, and he knew somebody was there for him and not just him against the world,” Knuttel said.

Police say 10 minutes pass as the man, who had been drinking, talks to a person on FaceTime. Knuttel, a trained crisis negotiator, grows concerned as the man becomes upset.

“I saw him stand up and look toward the sides and he rolled his head down and he started walking. I knew that I had to do something,” Knuttel said.

That’s when Knuttel broke toward him, grabbing the man’s legs to keep him stationary as other responding officers pull the two back from the ledge.

Everyone goes to the ground where officers try consoling the man as Knuttel rubs his back and their eyes meet. Knuttel told the man, “I love you.”

“I just could just hear it in his voice, he started crying. You could hear him weeping and I just remember telling him I loved him. I thought he needed to hear that,” Knuttel said. “I had so much compassion and so much love for the man that I wanted him to know that people care about him. I never met him ever in my life. I believe that I was put there in that moment of time for that reason.”

The man was transported to Atlantic Care Regional Medical Center for treatment.

Knuttel is hoping to stay in contact with the man he helped save.

“I know in my heart that man will succeed in life,” Knuttel said.

Knuttel was assisted in the rescue by Sgt. John Waddell and Officers Matthew Stollenwerk, Randy Rodriguez-Marte, Irwin Sanchez and Kyle Fauvell.

For anyone that needs assistance, or knows someone that needs assistance, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text TALK to 741741.

Man Jumps From Sands Casino Parking Garages

CBS3’s Dan Koob contributed to this report.

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SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — Authorities pulled a Nevada man back from the edge of a Northern California casino parking garage and handcuffed him as a suicide risk before he broke free and jumped to his death.

Sonoma County sheriff’s deputies called to Graton Resort and Casino near Santa Rosa early Monday found the man standing on a wall on top of a five-floor garage, talking to his wife nearby.

It appeared 24-year-old Geoffrey Wise Bertagnolli, of Gardnerville, Nevada, and his wife had been living out of their car recently, sheriff’s spokeswoman Misti Wood told the Press Democrat.

“The deputies started talking to the man, trying to figure out what was going on in his life and what was making him upset,” Wood said.

She said deputies tried to convince him to step back from the edge.

After about 30 minutes, Bertagnolli became distracted, and deputies grabbed him off the wall, Wood said. They handcuffed him and prepared to take him to a hospital or crisis stabilization unit.

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As deputies were walking Bertagnolli to a patrol car, he broke free, ran back toward the edge and leaped over it, still handcuffed, the sheriff’s office said. He died instantly.

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Information from: The Santa Rosa Press Democrat, http://www.pressdemocrat.com