A Selma woman led police officers on a brief chase downtown Thursday after she threatened to jump off the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Shaiteshia Spigner, 22, was taken into custody after officers spotted her at the foot of the bridge, according to Sgt. Joe Bills with the Selma Police Department.

Bills said dispatch received a call earlier in the day from a friend concerning Spigner.

“It started around 12:30 p.m when we got the first call from a friend of hers that she found a note implying the young lady wanted to jump off the bridge,” Bills said. “Officers in the area started looking and were unable to locate her at that time.”

The search continued on throughout the day until another call came in around 4 p.m. saying she had been spotted walking toward the bridge.

“We got another call this afternoon saying she had been spotted walking toward the bridge,” Bills said. “Officer Walker and Det. [Ray] Blanks got in the area of the bridge and located her. As soon as she saw them she took off running east on Water Avenue.”

Bills said Spigner was detained in the 1300 block of Water Avenue after she led officers on a short chase on foot.

“As soon as she saw the uniforms, she bolted east on Water Avenue. The officer followed her down the street until she went into a doorway alcove,” Bills said. “They were able to kind of corral her in there and try to talk to her.”

Spigner’s family and friends helped officers and EMTs with Care Ambulance calm her down before she was transported to the emergency room at Vaughan Regional Medical Center. Bills said Spigner is not facing any criminal charges, but a doctor is evaluating her.

Bills said Spigner was allegedly upset after a breakup.

“The implications that we get from her friends and family was that she had just broken up with her boyfriend,” Bills said. “She was distraught over that.”

Bills said the police department doesn’t have to deal with people threatening to jump off the bridge very often, but it is something they take very seriously.

“It is not all that frequent, but about every couple of months or someone decides they want to try jumping or they will tell someone they want to jump,” Bills said. “They usually don’t follow through, but we didn’t want to take a chance when we saw this one because she was at the foot of the bridge when we saw her.”

Bills said one of the only things officers can do in a situation like Thursday is to try to calm the person down.

“All we can do is try to calm them down and see if we can get them medical attention,” Bills said.