Authorities are still investigating what appeared to be a suicide attempt beneath the Edmund Pettus Bridge Wednesday evening. The Selma Police Department and CARE Ambulance responded to the scene at approximately 6:45 p.m. after receiving a phone call that an unidentified black female announced her intent to jump off the bridge.

Selma Chief of Police William T. Riley said the department is still investigating the matter, and the woman is currently at Vaughan Regional Medical Center receiving a full evaluation.

“Our officers interceded her from jumping off and that’s all I know right now,” Riley said. “The lady attempted to get on the bridge to jump off of it.”

Alecha Irby, who was at the foot of the bridge with several others at the time of the incident, said the woman approached her on the corner of Water Avenue and Broad Street and said, “she wanted to end it all.”

“I was trying to console her, but she didn’t want to be touched or anything,” Irby said. “She said she was trying to listen to voices in her head to tell her what to do, where to die at. That’s when I called the ambulance and the police.”

After contacting the police, Irby said the woman walked beneath the bridge, near Songs of Selma Park, and crawled over the railing towards the water.

Terry Stull, who also witnessed the incident, said he went beneath the bridge to try and pull the woman to safety.

“She was yelling ‘I’m going to jump,’” Stull said. “By then, I was just talking to her and trying to calm her down. The police pulled up, and by then I just stayed in front of her and the police were able to talk her into coming back over the rail.”

Police assisted the woman back to the foot of the bridge, where she was placed in a CARE ambulance. Riley said he expects her to receive a full mental and physical evaluation.