Cross-country authorities intervene with woman’s live-streamed suicide attempt

Emergency dispatchers in Alameda County, Cali. helped direct and coordinate a police intervention of a woman’s attempted suicide in Rockville Center, N.Y. on Wednesday, an incident which authorities are calling an “unusual situation.”

The ordeal began when the 52-year-old woman, originally from Rexburg, Idaho, began to live stream on Facebook, said Alameda County Sheriff’s Office’s Sgt. J.D. Nelson. The Family Crisis Centre in her home state had been keeping tabs on the woman and was monitoring the live stream because she appeared to be in distress.

Inspector Glenn Quinn from the Rockville Center Police Department told Global News that the woman was “depressed over marital woes” and that she had been cutting herself on her left arm.

Margie Harris, executive director of the crisis center, said the woman told them that she was located in California, prompting them to contact the sheriff’s office in the west coast.

The emergency dispatchers in Alameda County found the Facebook live stream and “pinged” her phone to try and locate her exact whereabouts. They contacted the local police department in New York, which happened to be the Rockville Center PD and communicated to officers what they knew.

Within minutes, police located the woman sitting in her car parked in front of a church. According to Harris, a bystander had also stopped to help the woman and waited until police arrived. Despite media reports, Harris and Quinn both confirmed that the woman was conscious when she was found and did not resist when authorities offered their help.

The police were able to take the woman to a hospital where she received treatment.

“They went the extra mile,” said Nelson of the Alameda County dispatchers. “She was across the country and they got her help.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "They went the extra mile," said Nelson of the Alameda County dispatchers. "She was across the country and they got her help."

Harris said it only took around 10 to 15 minutes from the moment the crisis center was alerted of the woman’s live stream, to the time that police intervened.

All three major players involved in helping find the woman said they did not know why she was in New York, but were pleased to know their coordinated efforts ended positively.

Harris admitted she wasn’t even aware that it was the dispatchers out west that ultimately helped police find the distressed woman; the crisis centre had contacted Facebook administrators and used other online tools to try and locate her.

“It’s amazing,” she said. “It seemed like we all kind of got it together at the same time. It was pretty amazing.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It's amazing," she said. "It seemed like we all kind of got it together at the same time. It was pretty amazing."

As for more cases of people documenting themselves taking their own lives via live streaming, Harris (who described this woman’s live stream as a “cry for help”) said it’s growing more common in her line of work.

“It’s just becoming a part of how people communicate,” she said.

Quinn said his officers aren’t getting specialized training on how to respond to live streamed suicide attempts because they “are trained in every possible scenario.”

“This is just a new variation on assisting someone in distress – just the manner of how we get the information has become different,” he said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "This is just a new variation on assisting someone in distress - just the manner of how we get the information has become different," he said.