2 Peru officers honored for saving person in mental health crisis

Peru Police Det. Amy Sines and Officer Alec Lindemann were honored Monday with commendations for saving the life of a woman in a Peru high rise.

On March 16, Peru officers were dispatched to the high rise in reference to a person in a mental health crisis sitting on the outside ledge of the seventh floor, Peru Police Chief Sarah Raymond said.

Lindemann responded to the call. He immediately recognized the person as someone he had contact with before and understood the severity of the call. He directed other officers and Peru EMS to stage in an area not in view of the person in crisis, knowing they would fixate on the response.

Lindemann said he spoke with the person and realized they were not going to come back in willingly. So, he kept talking to them, eventually earning enough trust to move closer.

“[They] kept talking about how [their] mental health was impacting [them] and how [they] couldn’t deal with it anymore,” he said.

Sines arrived on scene and began talking to the person in crisis while Lindemann gathered further information, Raymond said. Sines discovered the person had taken the remainder of the prescription medication and they began to sway back and forth tethering falling off the edge.

Sines said Lindemann put himself out the window while she “held on and braced.”

“He was able to pull [them] in and get [them] without anybody getting hurt,” she said. “It was as successful as one hoped it could be.”

“Without the quick actions of Officer Lindemann and Det. Sines there is no doubt this could have ended tragically,” Raymond said.

Lindemann, who is from the Peru area, has been in law enforcement for four years and with the Peru Police Department for two. He said he was grateful for the commendation and the opportunity to help someone.

“I don’t have a lot of time in, but it kind of reinforces that I am improving or I am getting better, " he said. “And we are all CIT trained, so specifically for mental health I think that helped a lot.”

Sines, who grew up in Spring Valley, is a certified crisis negotiator. She said she joined law enforcement to make a difference in a positive way in her community and to help people who couldn’t help themselves.

“[They] were having a mental health crisis,” she said. “[They] couldn’t help themselves. And that’s why I do this job. That’s why I’ve done it for the past 20 years.”

“You know I would hope that if I was ever in a position like that someone would have the same compassion and concern for me, so that’s why I did it.”