LAX officer uses Google Translator to save suicidal man from parking garage ledge

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A smartphone app provided Los Angeles International Airport police with the tools to help save a suicidal man from jumping off a parking garage ledge.

Surveillance video captured the frightening scene in which a young man hangs over the edge of the five-story parking structure just across from Terminal 4.

Airport police officers Mike Dear and Bartolo Castro were among the first to respond, and immediately Dear realized there was a language barrier.

"He's Korean speaking. I don't speak Korean," he said. "There's a whole lot I don't know about what's going on in his head."

The officers were unable to communicate with the man. At one point, the video shows the young man pulling himself up to stand on the ledge, at times looking down. Dear quickly devised a plan and pulled out his smartphone.

He decided to use Google Translator to help him figure out some of the things the man said to them. His idea worked, giving Dear and other officers the opportunity to coax the man closer to them.

As they distracted the man, Castro hopped the barrier and moved in to grab him.

"My first reaction was to grab him and know that he's not going to go anywhere after that," he said.

The suicidal man was handcuffed and taken to a mental health facility.