{"id":1420,"date":"2013-02-07T22:09:34","date_gmt":"2013-02-07T22:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/news\/2013\/02\/07\/sky-tower-drama-80-year-old-hero\/"},"modified":"2013-02-07T22:09:34","modified_gmt":"2013-02-07T22:09:34","slug":"sky-tower-drama-80-year-old-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/sky-tower-drama-80-year-old-hero\/","title":{"rendered":"Sky Tower drama: 80-year-old hero"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00a0<\/div>\n
An 80-year-old minister has told how he spent an hour persuading a mental health patient to cherish the gift of life and not jump, as they both stood 192m above the ground outside the Sky Tower.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The patient demanded to speak to a Jehovah’s Witness after scaling a safety fence and threatening to jump during an organised 3pm walk on the viewing deck on Saturday.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Graham Browne talked to the man and read to him from the Bible. <\/em><\/div>\n
Earlier, the man had stood at the edge of the Sky Tower’s outer rim, threatening to jump.\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Police called Graham Browne, a minister at the Avondale Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and soon after, he was at the top of the tower trying to talk the man down by reading from the Bible.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Mr Browne is adamant he did not do anything extraordinary. But he recounted the exceptional circumstances of his part in the drama.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“The police called to say they had this situation and would I be prepared to help,” he said. “I didn’t hesitate a bit; they were saying it was urgent.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But “to be honest, I didn’t think I’d be hanging out on the edge of the Sky Tower.”<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Mr Browne asked a friend, also a member of the church, to go with him.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“As we drove, my friend was asking, ‘What are you going to say?’ What came into my mind very quickly was that a life’s at stake, so I’m going to try to get him to recognise that life is a gift and it’s very precious and something to be cared for.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The man had left the Waikato District Health Board’s Henry Rongomau Bennett mental health centre in Hamilton hours before joining the Sky Tower tour.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Once on the platform, he walked around without safety restraints and refused to go back inside.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Mr Browne was taken up the tower and met by police officers at the viewing deck.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
About an hour later, he was fitted with a safety harness and had to empty his pockets and take off his wedding ring. Officers taped his glasses to his face and attached his Bible to his harness with a separate cord so there was no chance of him dropping anything from the tower.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“I went out there and the negotiator was sitting there talking to him. I read the words from the Bible again and said, ‘These are the words you’ve got to remember.’<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“I started talking to him about life being a gift and if he gave somebody a gift he would hope they would treat it with decency.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“I said, ‘I understand you believe in a creator. Please consider that and treat this life you have with respect’.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Mr Browne read one of the Bible passages the man had mentioned – John 3.16, which says: “God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Said Mr Browne: “I read those words to him. I read them about 20 times … I could see him sitting on the edge with his back to me and I kept asking him, ‘Please turn around. I would like to see your face’. He wasn’t paying any attention at all.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“Then I realised he was sitting there on the edge waving his arms around, and talking. I knew he couldn’t be talking to the people on the ground because they were more than 200m below.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“I’ve seen people like him in other situations and they’ve got voices in their heads – they’re hearing things.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“I said to the negotiator, `There are evil spirits talking to him … and we’ve got to beat them’. So I just kept telling him to stop listening to those voices.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“I read the words from the Bible again and said, ‘These are the words you’ve got to remember … That’s the truth, that’s from God, not these evil spirits talking to you’.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Eventually, the man pulled one of his legs up over the edge and looked as though he was going to move back.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Mr Browne and the negotiator pleaded with him to come to them.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“Eventually he moved and then he stood up. We encouraged him to come a bit closer. As he started to shuffle along I said, ‘It’s lovely to see you. Now I’m going to be able to show you what’s written here’.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The man came close to where Mr Browne was standing in a caged enclosure by the viewing-deck doors, but would not go all the way in.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“Then he started telling me his story. He’d been visited by some Jehovah’s Witnesses and he’d told them to go away and he was so, so sorry he’d done that.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“He wanted to be forgiven for that and I said, ‘Of course you’re forgiven – we all do things like that’.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The pair chatted about religion and the man seemed to calm down.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“And then something came into my head, I said, ‘Can I please interrupt you for a moment? I’ve got to tell you I’m scared stiff’. He replied, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry you’re scared’.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“I said, ‘No, I’m actually scared for you. I’m hooked on here, I’m safe. But you’re moving around and … if you make a false step, you’re gone’.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“A short time later he said, ‘Okay, I’ll come in now’. I will always remember the words,” said Mr Browne.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The patient walked to safety and police officers handcuffed him and took him away.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Said Mr Browne: “It was a relief. All the time I was up there I was perfectly calm, no question.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
After a cup of tea, he returned home.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“I just gave thanks how wonderful it was that it worked out. I was so impressed by the way the police were all there, just doing their bit.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“It was a wonderful team effort – they did a magnificent job.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“I just did my bit. I obliviously fit this poor man’s requirements.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Several police officers, including Auckland district commander Mike Clement, later contacted Mr Browne to thank him for his assistance.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Yesterday, relieving area commander Vaughn Graham told the Herald Mr Browne had built up a rapport with the man which resulted in the patient being taken safely into custody for health treatment.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
“Despite the wind, the height, the cold and the difficult task, Mr Browne did a wonderful job.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
http:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 An 80-year-old minister has told how he spent an hour persuading a mental health patient to cherish the gift of life and not jump, as they both stood 192m above the ground outside the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1420\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}