BATON ROUGE – The West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office is working to upgrade procedures after a woman who requested assistance attempted suicide.
According to a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, deputies responded to a domestic situation in West Baton Rouge on Saturday around 4:30 a.m. A woman asked deputies to take her to somewhere in Baton Rouge to get her away from where she was.
During the drive, the woman was not in handcuffs because she was not under arrest. She asked the driver to roll down the window for fresh air. With the window down, the woman stuck her hand out and opened the door from the outside.
Deputies said she got out of the unit while on the Mississippi River Bridge. After a struggle, deputies got her back into the unit, but she was able to escape again and jumped from the bridge.
The woman hit the water, but lived, and was picked up by a nearby boat. She was taken to a hospital and may face charges.
Now, the WBRSO is reviewing their procedures for transporting people not in custody. Those changes have not been released.