Deputies Mark Wehrli and Brian Gunsolley were honored by the Orange County Board of Supervisors for their heroic actions on August 10 when they saved a distraught woman who was dangling over an overpass on the freeway in Laguna Hills.

Copies of the resolutions were presented to the deputies by Supervisor Pat Bates, who credited the deputies with saving the life of the 24-year old woman.
Deputy Mark Wehrli also credited CHP Officer Rob Rand for the successful effort.

He gave this account of his action that day to the Board of Supervisors:

Officer Rand and myself walked along the ledge. When I looked at the next day, it was only about a two inch ledge. It seemed much bigger at the time. Officer Rand grabbed one part of her right arm I grabbed just above it. We held on to her while we were holding onto the fence. I was holding her with my left hand and holding onto the fence with my right arm. And just after we grabbed on to her, she let go and she was off the ledge, dangling. I didn’t realize that until later when I saw a video from down below looking up. She was kicking her legs and screaming at us to let her go. Just to let her drop. Which, you know, I’m not about to do. We held on to her. After a few minutes I was losing my grip.  Sgt. (James) Fouste was holding on to me. I have to thank him for keeping me alive. He’s the reason I’m here today.  We started losing her.  She was slipping out of our grasp. That’s when Deputy Gunsolley climbed over the fence, amazing. He grabbed hold of her other arm and helped us hold her against the fence.

Deputy Brian Gunsolley:
Good morning. This was a group effort. I wouldn’t have climbed over that fence if I didn’t know that I had a few deputies behind me to hold on to me. When I saw Deputy Wehrli and Officer Rand struggling with her and I saw she may take them off that ledge as well, it was a scary moment. It was one of those moments where you have think very quickly and act very quickly in order to solve the problem and have a good outcome.  I felt the only way to do that was for someone to get on the other side. I was there. It was my turn. So I climbed over the fence and got on that other side. I held on to her. She fought us. She wanted to fall. And we just hung on to her with every bit of strength we had until the Fire Department could come. We actually had about three-seconds left and she was going to drop. We were getting sweaty at the time and she was about to drop. She actually pushed off the ledge with her feet. That actually helped us, when she pushed from the ledge we used her body against her. We had her and held her until the Fire Department came and put a ladder up behind us.  We lowered her down after that.

To read the Resolutions click here: