The police body-worn camera footage is startling: A bloody man is perched on a Route 30 overpass, gripping a fence and making suicidal comments as Greensburg Officer Jacob Fazekas arrives.
Traffic can be heard passing on the highway below the West Newton Road bridge.
Fazekas is calm, repeatedly asking the man his name while climbing onto the bridge barrier and fence and wrapping his right arm around the man’s back. It was just before 10 p.m. April 12.
Officer Austin Pennington got there moments later, also jumping onto the barrier and fence, followed shortly after by Officer David Judy and Sgt. Hank Fontana. The four officers calmly talked to the man and shuffled him off the narrow barrier to safety, while risking their own, body camera footage showed.
Mayor Robb Bell said watching the body camera footage was frightening.
“If the fence would’ve broke, all of these guys would’ve gone out onto Route 30,” he said.
The four officers were honored Monday at Greensburg’s city council meeting with the Life Saving Award for their actions. Chief Charles Irvin praised them.
“They did an outstanding job,” he said. “They’re all proving to be excellent officers.”
The man was taken to a hospital for treatment of cuts and an involuntary psychiatric emergency evaluation, Irvin said.
It was the second time in about two years that Fazekas was honored by a municipal council for taking lifesaving actions during an emergency. He was among a group of police officers and a neighbor who were recognized in 2024 for helping to rescue two children and their mother from a burning home in Jeannette. Fazekas was on Jeannette’s police force at the time.
The March 20, 2024, fire on Guy Street killed Tyler J. King, 27, Kyson John, 7, Kinzleigh John, 6, Keagan John, 3, and Korbyn John, 1 month.