Off-duty deputy interrupts suicide plan

Spokane County Sheriff’s Office reports that one of its own, Corrections Deputy Timothy Bliven, was off-duty Wednesday afternoon and pulling his boat out of Spirit Lake.

Bliven noticed a juvenile male standing at the dock’s edge without a shirt and felt “something wasn’t right”. He approached the juvenile and noticed his hands were bound with a T-shirt.

Bliven pulled him away from the edge of the dock and had a bystander call 911.

The Kootenai County Sheriffs Office responded to the scene. The juvenile told the Kootenai County Sheriff’s deputy he was standing on the dock thinking about jumping into the lake in an attempt to drown himself and somebody suddenly grabbed him and took him away from the edge.

Bliven’s swift response to this potentially tragic situation probably saved the young man's life.