NATICK - When Officer Dylan Punch arrived at the Speen Street bridge over Rte. 9 Wednesday, he was confronted by a distraught, crying man with one leg hanging over the edge, threatening to jump.

Punch, a 27-year-old member of the department for 18 months, faced the job of trying to keep the man, who was in his early 20s, from killing himself. Police did not identify the man.

“He was crying a lot and he was really upset,” said Punch. “I just got down to his level and I started talking to him, asking him what was going on in his life. He had lost his job and he didn’t have a place. I told him we could help with those temporary problems. Jumping off the bridge is a finality.”

Police spokesman Lt. Cara Rossi said police received about 20 911 calls from commuters around 4 p.m. to report the suicidal man on the Speen Street north bridge over Rte. 9.

Punch arrived to find the man crying with a group of people standing nearby who had stopped their cars. Punch had every one back off and asked other officers to stop traffic on Rte. 9 so he could speak to the man.

“It’s hard, because someone’s life is hanging in the balance and it’s up to you to change that,” Rossi said.

Punch said he spoke to the man for four or five minutes, trying to get him to come down.

“There’s a little bit of pressure,” said Punch. “It’s very stressful because you don’t want to say the wrong thing. There was someone recording it with their phone. What’s the decision? Do you reach out and grab him? Do you talk to him? I got him to agree to come down and go to the hospital.”

An ambulance took the man to the MetroWest Medical Center’s Leonard Morse campus in Natick to be evaluated.

“I went to talk to him,” said Punch. “He realizes he needs help. I gave him my card and I told him if ever needs to reach out and talk to someone to call me.”

Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or nmiller@wickedlocal.com. For up-to-date crime news, follow Norman Miller on Twitter @Norman_MillerMW or on Facebook at facebook.com/NormanMillerCrime.