Laramie County Sheriff’s Deputy Recognized With Lifesaving Award

A Laramie County Sheriff's Deputy was recently recognized for helping to prevent a man from committing suicide by jumping off a bridge with a rope tied to his neck.

That's according to a post on the Laramie County Sheriff's Office Facebook page.

According to the post, the incident happened on January 22 of this year when Cheyenne Police were called to the Union Pacific Railroad Bridge in the 2000 block of West Lincolnway on a report of a suicidal person.

They found a male on the bridge with a ligature around his neck and the other end of the rope tied to the bridge. Deputy Colleen Onisto, who is a member of the Joint Crisis Negotiation Unit, soon arrived on the scene.

Deputy Onisto recognized the male from her job at the Laramie County Detention Center, where she had already developed a positive rapport with him.

She and the CPD officers on the scene were soon able to talk the man into coming down off the bridge, with the help of a Cheyenne Fire Rescue ladder truck.

Onisto was recognized, along with 12 members of the Cheyenne Police Department with the Life-Saving Award at the Cheyenne Police Department annual awards ceremony last week.