MASS. This could be a great Easter story. Of those that give hope: on young people, on solidarity, on altruism and on the great value of the uniform, experienced as a mission, just as the motto “always be there” states.
The hero
It is the story of a 27 year old boy from Massa, the agent Lorenzo Giusti, who, upon returning from an evening out (with his girlfriend and her sixteen-year-old sister) notices a man on the parapet of the Trieste bridge, sadly remembered as the “suicide bridge”. Lorenzo was not on duty that evening but there are people like him who have the uniform, the sense of solidarity and respect tattooed inside them, even when they are “in plain clothes”.
Cold blood
For this reason the young police officer didn’t hesitate for a moment to stop the car, reach the guardrail and first try to talk to the man already leaning into the void. Then he grabbed his arm, forcefully. And he saved him. No one had stopped before him: only at the end was he helped by another motorist who had understood what was happening and who grabbed the man who was now dangling over the void by his other arm. To tell this story, which in its simplicity says so much, we must start from the end. From a hug and a phone call. The hug is that of the man saved by Lorenzo: “A very long hug, which I will not forget.” The phone call was from the girlfriend’s young sister who witnessed the whole scene from the car. “You’re my superhero”: this is what she said to Lorenzo emotionally after seeing him run on the bridge, without thinking for a single moment. And save a life.
The rescue
What happened the night a few weeks ago (we do not provide further information to protect the person involved in the attempted suicide) begins with a slowdown. A “nailed”, as Lorenzo says. But it also arises from the sensitivity of this young agent who, as he himself says, every time he passes the Trieste bridge he glances at the holes that some compassionate hand has placed to remember the latest suicide victim. «That evening we were returning home – Lorenzo remembers – in front of the bridge, as I always do when I pass by, I took a look at the bouquet of flowers that had been placed after the death of a young man. That’s when I saw it. There was a man sitting on the parapet of the bridge, with his legs stretched out into the void. He was looking down, he seemed about to throw himself.” Everything then happens in a matter of moments. «I stopped the car, my girlfriend and her sister were inside. I slipped into the guardrail and, first of all, I started talking to him.” «I put into practice what they teach us in the police: I tried to reassure him, to empathize with him: but he didn’t even answer me, he seemed absent, he didn’t look at me» Lorenzo continues his dramatic story. «At that point I had no other choice, I had to use force if I wanted to save that man – he continues – So I walked the few meters that separated us and grabbed him, tightly, by the arm. In the meantime, another motorist had stopped and came to my aid. We managed to drag him away from the parapet: it wasn’t easy, for a brief moment it seemed that he actually managed to end up below.”
The hug
There were excited moments on the bank of the Trieste bridge. Moments when you have to use all the coldness necessary to save a life. But then there are the emotions. The authentic ones, the ones that remain. «The thing that struck me was that that man, as soon as he stood up, came towards me – says Lorenzo – and he hugged me for a long time. A tight hug, almost a painful “outburst”: if before he hadn’t even looked at me, then instead he spoke to me, and said things that he won’t forget.”
«You are my superhero»
In a phone call, the very young sister-in-law elected Lorenzo her “superhero”. His girlfriend, who had never seen him in action with his uniform on, witnessed the scene on the bridge with emotion and pride. He, Lorenzo, does not feel special, he thinks he has done what he had to do: because helping others is the first thing. «In the police the motto is to always be there – he concludes – At that moment I couldn’t do anything but get busy: there was a man, a life to save».
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