‘People are idiots’: 911 calls from Beaufort County bridge jumpers show disbelief from witnesses, emergency personnel

The Beaufort County Sheriffs Office has released the 911 calls from two incidents July 12 in which people jumped off bridges in Beaufort County.

The first jump was off the eastbound side of the J. Wilton Graves Bridge over Skull Creek around noon.

A woman driving on the bridge at the same moment called 911.

“A guy just jumped off the second bridge going onto Hilton Head,” she said.

“He was standing on the side for a little bit, and I was trying to watch him because I thought that was unusual,” she said. “And then he just jumped off.”

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Coast Guard, Bluffton Marine Rescue Services, Parris Island Fire and the Beaufort County Sheriffs Office all responded to what they thought was a water rescue.

“We have pretty much everyone in route there at this time,” someone said during the 911 calls.

Emergency personnel put boats in the water and helicopters in the air. Then a deputy saw a soaking-wet man come out of a wooded area near the C.C. Haig Jr. Boat Landing on Pinckney Island.

The man turned out to be 47-year-old Kenneth Nusser of Ridgeland.

A suicide attempt was ruled out.

“Nusser stated he wanted to go for a swim before work and admitted to being an andrenaline seeker,” the police report read. “Nusser was adamant he was not trying to harm himself.”

He was charged with violating the Beaufort County ordinance prohibiting jumping off bridges.

Law enforcement officials say the ordinance is in place not only because bridge jumping is dangerous, but because when reported, the incidents tie up emergency personnel and waste valuable resources — like the fuel for the boats and helicopters used in this case.

Another call came in on the other end of the county later in the day.

A bikini-clad woman had allegedly jumped off the Lemon Island bridge. Two witnesses called 911.

The second witness drove down to a parking lot and parked near the bridge. She spotted a boat carrying six passengers, one of whom was the jumper in her pink and brown bikini.

After asking the 911 dispatcher if she should just ask the woman if she was the one who jumped, she approached her.

“Excuse me,” she said. “Did you just jump off that bridge?”

The woman denied doing so, but witness called her out.

“Yes you did, I saw your bathing suit,” she said. “Please don’t lie to me, I have the police on the phone.”

“You scared the crap out of me,” the 911 caller continued.

Emergency personnel had already been alerted and were on their way to the scene by the time the woman was recognized.

The water rescue was called off as the witness remained on the phone and deputies were sent to try to locate the woman.

The witness left the area out of concern about how agitated the woman’s fellow boat passengers were becoming.

“I just heard of somebody else that jumped off the bridge in Hilton Head and it’s not funny,” she told the dispatcher before she hung up. “People are idiots.”

Before deputies arrived, the presumed jumper got back in the boat and left the area. She has not been identified.

This story was originally published July 30, 2017 at 12:00 AM with the headline "‘People are idiots’: 911 calls from Beaufort County bridge jumpers show disbelief from witnesses, emergency personnel."