T.I. is a Real American Hero!

IMAGE COURTESY OF CARLA.

There are two ways to react when you learn that T.I.—rapper, producer, entrepreneur—saved a man’s life yesterday, as reported in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. You can be cynical and speculate that he just did it to butter up U.S. District Judge Charles Pannell, who will decide on Friday whether T.I. goes back to jail after a parole violation. Or you could be optimistic and say and pay homage to our new national hero!

T.I. was on his way to a video shoot yesterday afternoon when he heard a radio report that a man was threatening to jump from a 22-story building in midtown Atlanta. So he went over to the scene and offered to talk to the man, according to police officer James Polite (which, it should be noted, is a cinematic name for a policeman). T.I. then sent a video message to the roof via negotiator in which he reports he said “that I was here and I was looking forward to meeting him and that no matter what’s going on in life now, it gets better.” The would-be jumper came down, talked to T.I. for a little while, then went to the hospital for evaluation.

At his court hearing on Friday, Judge Pannell will decide whether T.I. goes back to jail. He was released in March after serving weapons charges, and is currently on probation; he was pulled over for making an illegal U-turn in September and found in possession of ecstasy. The rapper claims his good deed doesn’t have anything to do with the hearing.

We’d just like to point out that it must be pretty nice to be so famous and beloved that simply offering to talk to a suicidal person is enough to save that person’s life.

[AJC]