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Bob Collins

Heroes on the Miss. River honored for saving a man who jumped

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Employees of Upper River Services in St. Paul were honored for rescuing a man who had jumped from the Robert St. bridge into the Mississippi River. Photo: U.S. Coast Guard.

Thanks to the U.S. Coast Guard and the Star Tribune, we know a little bit more about the May 2 incident, which I wrote about here, when a man jumped off St. Paul's Robert Street bridge and into the Mississippi River.

We know, for example, that there are some fine people who work the river below.

Beasley Baker, Russ Galvan, Randy Kohl, Jesse Harrison and Ben Brooks were honored by the Coast Guard on Tuesday because they saw the man floating in the river, fired up a tow boat, and threw him a lifeline, which he'd initially rejected.

“We threw it back. I said, ‘You have to hold it.’ He got it under his elbow and we lifted him up,” Galvan tells the Strib about the 31-year old man.

He had a about a minute left before he'd be dead, he figures.

Not surprisingly, they haven't heard anything about how the man is doing or where he is. He was initially taken to Regions Hospital.

“He was out of it,” Galvan said. “I asked him why he jumped, and he said Lucifer was chasing him.”

“Hopefully he’s happy that we saved him,” Harrison said. “I hope it can be a second chance.”