Boston officer credited with breaking fall of woman who fell headfirst from Dorchester rooftop

By Martin Finucane and Colin A. Young, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent

A Boston police officer is winning praise for breaking the fall of a woman who tumbled headfirst from a rooftop in Dorchester early this morning, police said.

Officer Robert Robichaud responded to a report at 3:45 a.m. of a distraught female threatening to jump from the roof of a Wilbert Road residence, police said.

“A call came in for a person on the roof and I happened to be right around the corner from the call,” Robichaud said in an interview. “Nothing was really going through my head, I just responded to the call.”

Robichaud said when he arrived, the woman was sitting on the roof yelling at people below.

“I saw who I believe is her daughter and somebody else she was talking to on the ground,” he said. “Several others were looking on from their porches and windows.”

Additional officers arrived and entered the residence to try to speak with the woman from an upstairs window. Robichaud stood on the front steps and attempted to engage her from the ground.

“I went up to talk to her, to see why she was on the roof and figure out what was going on with her,” Robichaud said. “She was basically having a family fight with her daughter about a boy.”

Robichaud said he tried to get the woman to focus on talking to him.

“You try to calm her down and talk to her rationally,” he said. “The ultimate goal is to get her to go back into the house where you can deal with her from a different aspect.”

As officers were talking to the woman, she moved closer to the edge of the roof. Robichaud positioned himself on the front steps.

“As we were talking to her, she kept getting closer to edge,” Robichaud said. “I stood on the steps so I could talk to her and in case anything happened.”

Then, the woman leaned forward and fell headfirst off the building. Robichaud moved under the woman, and broke her fall.

“To be honest, it happened so fast, there was no thought, I just got underneath her and tried to catch her,” he said. “She landed on me, knocked me off the stairs and into an officer on the sidewalk. At that point, fire and EMS were already there, so I got out of the way so they could do their job.”

Both Robichaud and the female were taken to Boston Medical Center and treated for minor injuries. Robichaud said the incident was unlike any other he has responded to during his three years on the police force.

“I’ve had a lot of crazy calls,” he said, “but nothing to the point where someone was up on the roof threatening to jump off.”