Posted on 05/20/2019 5:26:11 AM PDT by csvset
VIRGINIA BEACH
Collin Dozier is rarely up late. But a fun night with friends riding their motorized skateboards at the Oceanfront had him headed home a little past midnight.
As he drove over the Lesner Bridge on April 25, just a few hundred yards from his house, he noticed a parked car on the opposite side of Shore Drive. Its blinkers were on. Probably just broken down, he thought.
But when he parked at his house, something told him to go investigate. So he hopped on his skateboard and road back up to the top of the bridge. There he found a man leaning over the railing, staring at the waters of Lynnhaven Inlet some 50 feet down.
"He was just standing there, counting and swaying back and forth," said Dozier, 31. "I tried to talk to him, but he ignored me."
Dozier kept talking to the man and slowly tried to move closer. When he got too close, the man climbed over the rail leaving nothing to prevent him from falling.
A serious situation, for sure, but Dozier wasn't about to let the man jump.
"I knew God had my back and I was really at peace," he said. "He was the reason I was out late, so I could be at that place at that time."
Dozier recited to the man Jeremiah 29:11. " 'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' " The man still didn't want to respond other than to tell Dozier to leave him alone.
That's when the first of several police officers arrived. He told Dozier that two people would die that night if he came any closer because he had a gun and we would shoot both of them. The officers decided to keep their distance, listening to Dozier give the man testimony and realizing that he had the best chance of stopping the jumper.
"Our citizens are often our first responders," Mayor Bobby Dyer said while giving Dozier a life-saving award on Wednesday. He called the former Cox High School wrestler, who now works for a local construction company JES, a true hero.
As the man continued to shut his eyes, count and sway, Dozier kept inching closer and closer.
"I knew I had to do something and fast," he said. "And if he was going in, I was going to go with him
Inches away from being able to touch the man, Dozier's mind took him back to his youth, when he was one of the best wrestlers in the country — winning four state titles as a middle schooler and four more at Cox.
He made his move the next time the man shut his eyes, putting him in a lock hold and pulling him over the rail.
A possible suicide had been prevented.
But it wouldn't be the only time Dozier would save the man's life.
When police took the man to the hospital, doctors found drugs in his system. He was close to overdosing. A nurse and doctor recognized him from overdosing twice in the week prior.
Back at home, Dozier couldn't sleep. He said God kept telling him to minister. It would be a couple of days before he could reach the man, by then in a rehab facility.
"He was blown away that I had reached out to him," Dozier said. "He couldn't believe somebody could care so much about someone they didn't know."
It's been three weeks since that night. The man — who said he isn't ready to tell his story until he's finished with rehab — is back at work and joins Dozier for Sunday services at Trinity Church.
He said he's given himself to God and has scheduled a time to get baptized.
"I want to live," he said before Dozier was presented with his award. "I don't think I've ever been better emotionally, physically, certainly not spiritually.
"He saved my life. Collin saved my life. So did the Lord."
Wow...the local libs at the Pilot let that one through, or God, perhaps?
Thanks Lord!
Jesus said, “The words I have spoken to you are spirit, and they are LIFE”
Bless your heart for posting this; reading it has truly blessed my day!
I was surprised to be honest.
Virginia Pilot have an editor? He “road back”.
Great story.
Just think if this was in an Islamic country, there’s a good chance some jihadist would have taken the opportunity to teach him how to use a suicide belt.
That a random stranger reached out, risked his life and then followed up, is a powerful statement. While experience says most addicts are unable to kick their addictions because of a strong biochemical pull, partly acquired and partly congenital, there is a glimmer of hope that would not have existed if he had gone off the bridge.
Wow....God’s will be done. Has made my whole day.
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