Daryl Williams was in the middle of his pizza delivery shift during rush hour Monday night when something on the Avenue J bridge in Arlington caught his eye.
"There was a man standing there," Williams said. And he was looking down at traffic on Highway 360 below him. "I saw everyone driving by and I'm like, what if no one says anything to him? What's going to happen?"
Williams stopped his car on the bridge and walked to the man who was holding the rail.
"The Holy Spirit told me to stop and go check," Williams said. "At that point, I'm not thinking about pizza."
He was thinking about why the man was there on the bridge.
"As I was walking to him, I said 'Lord, give me the words to say to him,'" Williams recalled. "I just started talking to him. I said, 'Hey, what are you thinking about?' Said, 'Why are you thinking about it right here?'"
Williams said the man looked to be in his 20s and was distraught over a burglary at the hotel where he was staying.
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"I told him it's not worth it. We can replace things. We can't replace you," Williams said.
Williams put his arm around the man, whose name he never got, and walked him off the bridge. Someone snapped a photo of the encounter and posted it to Facebook.
"It only takes one person to stop to make a difference," Williams said. "I have no idea who he is ... if you need to talk, I'm here."
If you or someone you know needs help, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255. It is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
