Bystanders on Saturday afternoon rushed to try to rescue a man who jumped or fell from an elevated walkway above Long Beach’s Rainbow Harbor, but the man ultimately succumbed to his injuries, according to witnesses and authorities.
Nilda Langston, who captains a boat for a local harbor cruise company, said she and her crew were helping a tour group board their vessel around 2:30 p.m. when they saw a man atop a spiral staircase that connects the pedestrian walkway over Shoreline Drive to the edge of Rainbow Harbor.
When the man jumped or fell from the staircase, he landed on the dock below and then ended up in the water, according to Langston.
Her crew and several bystanders rushed to get him out using the boat’s man-overboard gear.
She said a deckhand and Good Samaritan “jumped in and grabbed him” before a group helped hoist the man back onto the dock. A doctor who happened to be in the tour group started CPR with help from a nurse and other bystanders, according to Langston.
A crowd formed, she said: “There was a lot of people, lots of children. It’s a Saturday on the waterfront.”