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The town of Forest Heights is set to honor two of its officers for bravery after they risked their lives to rescue a man who tried to commit suicide earlier this month by jumping off the Woodrow Wilson Bridge near Oxon Hill.

Sgt. Calvin Washington and Officer Milton Dean will be honored May 20 with the Medal of Valor by the Forest Heights Town Council for their actions during the April 8 rescue, said Frank Webb, the town's police chief. The award, one of the highest for town officers, is given to those who have gone above and beyond and put their life on the line for the call of duty, Webb said.

Police received a call from the man's family telling them that he planned to commit suicide on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and from a motorist who saw the man walking along the closed pedestrian section of the bridge. Maryland State Police responded to the scene shortly after 3 p.m. and tried to talk the man down from the bridge before he climbed over the pedestrian fence and began dangling over the bridge with only his hands keeping him from plummeting.

Washington said when he responded to the scene with Dean and Webb, three state troopers and Prince George's County police officers were holding onto the man using belts they wrapped around him. Sensing that police were about to lose their grip on the man, Washington said he threw off his gun belt and vest and rushed in.

"I was scared – I don't know what came over me. I saw that they were about to drop him," he said, adding that since the incident he has "had nightmares about that."

Washington jumped the pedestrian fence using half his body to grab onto the man's arms, while Webb and other officers anchored Washington to keep him from tumbling over into the river.

"Sgt. Washington, using pure brute strength, managed to secure the victim," Webb said. "I thought for sure that Washington was going to go over [the bridge]. If we weren't there, the guy would have taken a fall."

The man weighed close to 200 pounds, Webb said, and became dead weight when he hung from the side of the bridge.

"We definitely want to commend Forest Heights [police] for coming to the rescue," said Mayor Andrea McCutcheon.

According to state police, the man, whom police have not identified, was 38 and from Upper Marlboro.

Webb said the man threatened to commit suicide because his girlfriend broke up with him, but after hanging 70 feet above water, Washington said he saw terror in the man's eyes.

"At that point he was like, ‘Don't let me fall, I don't want to die,'" Washington said.

The water under the bridge was at least 25 feet deep, Webb said, and the fall would have been fatal.

Webb said drivers honked their horns in congratulations when they saw the man's life was saved.

"I felt good," Washington said about saving a life. "You do the job every day, but to actually go home and say, ‘Damn, I saved somebody's life today,' felt really good."

Washington, 38, has been an officer for nine years is also a Prince George's County volunteer firefighter. He said the medal would be his first, but he insisted it will only have ceremonial meaning.

"Being able to help somebody is all the congratulations I need," he said.