Pizza Saves Suicidal Man, Lures Him Down From SC Span

In South Carolina, pizza saved a suicidal man after a few hours of tense negotiating on a South Carolina bridge.

The suicidal man saved by a pizza was not named in press reports, but a motorist spied the adult male on the outer portion of the Ravenel Bridge span Monday, alerting police to a possible suicide in progress.

Commuters in Mount Pleasant were stymied on both routes after a three-car accident and the suicide attempt — with the latter eventually resolved by a pizza delivery, but also impeded by the earlier accident.

By midday, the situations had been resolved, but it was early that morning when the suicidal man saved by a pizza had parked his vehicle on the southbound shoulder of the span and breached a barrier at about 6:50 am.

More than 10 drivers called to report a pacing and visibly distraught man wearing a green shirt and using a cell phone on the Ravenel Bridge’s outer barrier.

Several motorists were confused by the man’s use of hazard lights, believing his vehicle to possibly be disabled. A local news source quotes one worried caller, who notes that there was no reason for the suicidal man to have been in the area in which he was observed to be clinging above the river below:

“[He’s] holding onto the cable looking like [he’s] getting ready to jump… There’s no other reason for him to be there.”

At around 11:45 in the morning, cops shut the bridge down entirely to attempt to talk the suicidal man down from his perch.

In the hours he remained on the bridge, the despondent man had become hungry and thirsty, and police managed to lure him from the waters with a pepperoni pizza and water.

Mount Pleasant Police Maj. Stan Gragg said that the man was then taken by police to Medical University Hospital, and he says the suicidal man’s pizza was just a single part of the negotiation and not necessarily why the suicide was prevented:

“It just so happened he was taken into custody shortly after being provided pizza.”

A.J. Castle owns Andolini’s, the pizza joint that provided the pie — at no charge to the officer. Castle said:

“I figured he was doing a good deed, I might as well do him a good deed as well.”

He adds:

“I’ve been here for nine years and nothing like this has ever happened… But I’m not going to take credit for what happened. I was just doing my job.”

Police did not confirm any details about the suicidal man’s pizza salvation nor would they say why he planned to take his own life.