‘She wasn’t meant to die:’ Cop saves woman by grabbing her belt 12 stories in the air

Sarasota police Sgt. Anthony Frangioni is credited with saving a woman’s life after she jumped from a 12th story balcony while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, according to police.

Early Sunday morning, about 6:30 a.m. — before Frangioni even had a chance to drink his morning coffee — he and several other officers were called to the penthouse on the 13th floor of an apartment of building in Sarasota for a dispute. The dispute had evolved from an intervention into a situation where a woman, Frangioni recalled, had either jumped or climbed down a floor and was hanging onto a balcony’s Christmas lights.

A second call came in to 911 from the person who lived in a 12th floor apartment, saying the woman was on their balcony. The resident let the woman inside and told officials she was “out of control,” Frangioni said.

After some trouble entering the locked building, officers were finally able to get another resident unrelated to the call to let them into the building and onto the elevator to the penthouse.

Frangioni and another officer were able to make it to the 12th floor apartment. When they entered the apartment the woman saw the officers and took off in a sprint toward the balcony, Frangioni said.

“No, no, no! Don’t do it,” Frangioni remembered yelling as the woman ran.

She grabbed the railing, but Frangioni was right behind her as she tried to throw her roughly 130-pound frame over. In what he called luck, Fangioni was able to grab onto the woman’s belt, and hold onto her to keep her from falling. Another officer came up behind him and held on, too.

“It was all timing, a step slower, an inch shorter, it would have been different,” Frangioni said.

Unlike other similar situations, there was no time to talk to the woman, to try to explain things to her.

“There was no talking, no time to make somebody realize what you’re about to do is not a smart thing to do, it’s a permanent solution to a temporary problem,” Frangioni said.

But the woman, who Frangioni said was under the influence of drugs or alcohol during the incident, started slapping him and saying she would take him with her.

The two officers held on as tight as they could for several minutes before backup arrived to pull her over the railing. Frangioni just kept thinking to himself, “Don’t let go.”

“She kept saying she wanted to die,” Frangioni told reporters when he returned to work on Wednesday. “The look on her face (when she took off running) was determination.”

He’s still not sure how it happened, but he was sure it was for a reason.

“She got saved twice that day,” Frangioni said. “She wasn’t meant to die.”

His wish for the woman he helped save, is that she’s able to get help for herself.

“The whole origin of the dispute started from an intervention of people that love her, so hopefully she’ll see that people do love her,” Frangioni said.

Though he held the woman’s life in his hands, Frangioni said he wasn’t scared, but was doing what anyone would do and hoisting her up to safety.

“It’s what we do, you know. I just did what probably anybody would have done,” Frangioni said.

After the incident, Frangioni encouraged those who may be going through an emotional or suicidal crisis to call the Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or go online to suicidepreventionlifeline.org to chat with someone.

This story was originally published December 20, 2017 at 1:43 PM with the headline "‘She wasn’t meant to die:’ Cop saves woman by grabbing her belt 12 stories in the air."