On April 25 around midnight, Collin Dozier was driving over the Lesner Bridge in Virginia Beach when he saw a man leaning over the edge of the bridge.
He felt that he couldn’t drive pass the scene, so Dozier decided to hit the brakes.
He circled back and spoke with the desperate man.
“I just got called,” he told WTKR3.
“That’s the only explanation I can even explain. God called me to go to the bridge.”
The young man, Jacob Palmer, was high on meth, PCP, heroin, and cocaine that night.
After a short conversation, Dozier managed to convince Palmer not to jump from the bridge.
“At that point, I was like, ‘Hey man, don’t do it. Jesus loves you. He’s got a plan for your life,'” Dozier told CBN.
Later, the police arrived to the scene. Then things took a turn.
He became aggressive.
Palmer became aggressive towards Dozier and the police.
“He said, ‘Leave me alone right now. There’s going to be two murders tonight. I have a gun. I’m telling you both if you don’t leave me alone,” Dozier explained.
No one really knew what was going to happen, so Dozier decided to act quickly. Dozier used his years of wrestling to take Palmer down.
“Being a wrestler and wrestling my whole life, I knew if I got him around him he’s not getting out.”
The police arrested Palmer and brought him to the station.
The story could have ended there, but it was far from over.
Dozier received the Lifesaving Award.
Mayor Bobby Dyer of the Virginia Beach honored Collin Dozier with the city’s “Lifesaving Award.”
“I really believe that the good Lord puts his hands on our shoulders at times to do great things like this,” said Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer.
“This is an individual who put his own life at risk to save another. And you know, that’s a godly thing.”
What is also very gratifying is that Dozier and Palmer still keep in contact. Dozier is now Palmer’s mentor.
He attends Dozier’s church and has been sober and drug free since that night on the bridge.
Last weekend, Jacob Palmer was baptized at the Virginia Beach oceanfront. Dozier was there and took part in the ceremony.
Sometimes we meet a person that changes our whole life and I’m happy that Collin was there in Jacob’s darkest moment.
We really need more people in the world who act like Collin! Please share this article on Facebook to pay tribute to this hero.