Female Safe After Attempt to Jump Off Newport Bridge

Source: Google maps

A female who apparently was attempting to jump off the Newport Road bridge over Interstate 215 is safe tonight after she was grabbed by someone who had stopped to help, police and witnesses said tonight.

According to Deputy Armando Munoz of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, officers responded at 4:10 p.m. to the report of a female standing on the edge of the bridge. When officers arrived, the woman was safely in the arms of an unidentified person on the inside of the bridge wall. The female was detained and later taken to a hospital for a mental evaluation, Munoz said.

Two readers contacted Menifee 24/7 about the same incident. Menifee resident Joanne Pann-Kydd said in a phone interview that she was waiting in her car in the left-turn lane on westbound Newport, waiting to turn onto the southbound on-ramp, when she saw a young woman to her left, standing near the edge of the south wall of the bridge. She said two others were talking to her.

Pann-Kydd said as she was on the phone with a 911 operator, the female put one leg over the side of the bridge, appearing ready to jump. At that point, Pann-Kydd said, it appeared the female lost her balance and fell back onto the bridge, into the arms of one of the witnesses.

Less than a minute later, police arrived.

Police did not release the identity or age of the woman.