The man who broke the fall of a woman who jumped from the third deck of the Oakland Coliseum on Sunday says his Marine training prompted him to react to the incident. Donnie Navidad, 61, is back home in Stockton recovering from severe bruises and other soft-tissue injuries while the unidentified woman is hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.
Navidad told the Stockton Record on Monday (see video above) that as he exited the Coliseum following Sunday's Raiders game, "I heard this voice from a lady, real close, saying 'Don't do it, don't do it.'" He continued:
"I happened to look up, and there was this female, I want to say about 20. She was sitting down in the area that I guess was restricted. After I told her, 'Don't do it,' my coworker noticed she was moving to fall. And when she fell, that's when I went to try to catch her to break her fall. ... She hit my arm and then kind of bounced six yards over."
Navidad, a member of the Marine Corps Reserve," credited his military training for his response to the incident. "It just kicked in," Navidad said. "It never leaves you."
Here's the earlier Associated Press account of the Coliseum incident: