A 12-year-old girl narrowly missed becoming a suicide statistic thanks to a rookie police officer in Southern California on a routine patrol. 
 
 "Possible jumper on the York Bridge. Can you notify Pasadena?" a dispatcher could be heard saying over a police scanner. 
 
 By the time that call went out, Officer Chris Perez, who had been on the South Pasadena Police force only for a year, was already there. The girl was on a 6-inch ledge ready to jump. 
 
 One misstep, and she could fall some 80 feet to her death, so Perez did not rush up to her. 
 
 "I walked up to her calmly. I literally didn't even start talking to her until I made it to the sidewalk and just asked her what was happening, what was going on," Perez told CBS News correspondent Carter Evans. 
 
 The whole time, he knew if he said the wrong thing, she might just let go. 
 
 "She told me she was upset by a group home that she was living at, and that's why she ran away. She was telling me they treated her poorly and badly and would lock her in a room every time she was bad," Perez said. 
 
 It took time, patience and trust. 
 
 "It was just back-and-forth banter with me and her. 'Can I come closer to you? Can I talk you closer? Can I pull you over the ledge so we can talk in a safer environment?'" Perez said. "It was that back-to-back conversation with her that I felt was going so smoothly that I felt comfortable enough to lean over and get her." 
 
 The girl did allow him to rescue her. 
 
 "I grabbed a hold of her arm, and I wrapped it around my neck and grabbed her body and bear hugged her and dragged her over," Perez said. 
 
 "2-0-2. It's code four. I got her off the bridge," Perez could be heard saying afterwards over the police radio. 
 
 Perez said the girl didn't seem happy after the rescue. 
 
 "She was sad and just started breaking down even more," he said. 
 
 By the time paramedics arrived, Perez's job was done -- but not forgotten. Now when he looks at the bridge, fear goes through his mind, he said. 
 
 She had told him she only had an aunt -- no other family -- and wanted to live with her. For now, the 12-year-old is waiting in protective police custody. ||||| SOUTH PASADENA (CBSLA.com) — A hug saved a 12-year-old girl who had fled from a Los Angeles group home with the intention of jumping to her death. 
 
 Officer Chris Perez was on patrol in the area of York Bridge and San Pascual Avenue at about 6:50 p.m. Tuesday when he was flagged down by bystanders who said a girl was sitting on the other side of the bridge’s guardrail, threatening to jump. 
 
 The child – whom police described as sobbing and desperate – was hanging by one hand from the bridge, which was about 80 feet over asphalt. 
 
 Perez walked to the area where the 12-year-old girl was dangling and spoke to her, learning she was from a group home in Los Angeles that she fled for severe emotional reasons, South Pasadena police officials said. The rookie officer, who had only been with the department for a year, asked if he could come closer to speak to her more personally, and she said he could. 
 
 The officer quickly developed a rapport with the girl and was able to calm her down, according to police. The girl agreed to allow Perez to come closer, and he asked if he could help her back over the bridge railing. 
 
 “She was just crying and holding on,” he said. 
 
 The girl told Perez she was scared and needed help, so the officer leaned over the railing, grabbed her in a bear hug and helped her over the railing to safety, police said. 
 
 Perez sat with the child on the sidewalk and gave her water, police said. When she complained of an ankle injury, Perez called the fire department for assistance. 
 
 The girl, who had been living in a group home at an address off of Avenue 64 in Los Angeles, was taken into custody for medical evaluation, according to police. 
 
 She “is safe tonight because of Officer Perez’s calm, professional actions,” police officials said. 
 
 CBS2’s Kristine Lazar said this was an example of being in the right place at the right time. 
 
 Her interview with Officer Perez is a story that is Only On 2. 
 
 He told her he was only an hour into his shift when he was told about the young girl on the bridge. 
 
 She told him she wanted to be reunited with her only family — an aunt. 
 
 “I do have nephews, and nieces,” Perez said, “one who is 7, the other who just turned 2. So I can’t relate, that, oh my Lord, this young indivual, this juvenile, is on the other side [on the bridge] what could possibly be going wrong in your life to make you want to do something like this?” 
 
 Perez is reluctant to call himself a hero and uncomfortable that others are calling him one — but he is glad his parents (and dad is also an officer) took notice. 
 
 “Hearing it from my parents is one thing,” Perez says, humbly, “Because I know I did right by them.”
– Faced with a 12-year-old girl hanging by an arm from an 80-foot-high bridge, threatening to end her young life, a rookie cop started talking, reports CBS Los Angeles. Asking the girl if he could come closer, Officer Chris Perez says the child "was just crying and holding on;" she told Perez she had fled a group home in LA, and that she needed help. "It was just back-and-forth banter with me and her," Perez says. "'Can I come closer to you? Can I talk you closer? Can I pull you over the ledge so we can talk in a safer environment?' It was that back-to-back conversation with her that I felt was going so smoothly that I felt comfortable enough to lean over and get her." Per CBS, Perez "leaned over the railing, grabbed her in a bear hug, and helped her over the railing to safety." Police officials credit Perez's "calm, professional actions" with saving the girl, while Perez himself seems appalled that someone so young could find herself so desperate. "I can’t relate, that, oh my Lord, this young individual, this juvenile, is on the other side [on the bridge] what could possibly be going wrong in your life to make you want to do something like this?" But after the rescue, "she was sad and just started breaking down even more," Perez tells CBS News. The girl, who wanted to reconnect with an aunt, her only family, was put in police custody.