LATE BREAKING NEWS!

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[On September 18, 2008 at approximately 9:30 am, Chester Police received a dispatch to be on the lookout for a vehicle in reference to locating a possible suicidal subject. The vehicle in question was spotted by a Chester police officer, driving west on the Bridge Bypass Road, headed toward the Mississippi River Bridger. The officer immediately initiated a traffic stop in an effort to assess the welfare of the individual. The vehicle pulled to the side of the road just short of the bridge. Just as assissting officers began to arrive on scene a male, later identified as a 39 year old male subject from Sparta, Illinois, exited the vehicle and ran on to the bridge. Missouri Department of Transportation Workers, who where on the bridge at the time, assisted the police officers. Officers and bridge workers pursued as this male subject climbed over the railing and began to hand from the railing by his arms with his body dangling over the Mississippi River. As officers and bridge workers converged on the subject he let go and plummeted into the river.

According to police reports, the male subject then began to swim toward the Illinois shore, latching on to tree limbs near the riverbank. The male subject was successfully pulled from the water and immediately transported to Chester Memorial Hospital for treatment of minor injuries and psychiatric evaluation.