Prosecutors mulling charges against woman who pushed friend off bridge
Prosecutors in Washington will consider charging an 18-year-old woman who pushed her teenage friend off a bridge, sending her plummeting 60 feet to the river below and leaving her with multiple injuries, officials said Tuesday.
Clark County Major Crimes unit investigators wrapped up their probe of the incident that occurred earlier this month at the Moulton Falls Bridge near Vancouver, Washington, and are turning over their findings to prosecutors, said Brent Waddell, a spokesman for the Clark County Sheriff's Office.
"The case will be forwarded to the Clark County Prosecutor's Office for appropriate charging," Waddell said in a statement.
Waddell said the suspected pusher, Taylor Smith, has been cooperating with investigators.
Smith allegedly pushed 16-year-old Jordan Holgerson off the bridge on August 7, officials said.
Surveillance camera footage shows the girl was standing on a bridge ledge and was pushed off by another girl standing behind her.
Holgerson initially wanted to jump off the bridge after she saw a friend do it, she told ABC affiliate station KATU-TV in Portland. But Smith allegedly pushed her from behind before she was ready to leap, officials said.
Holgerson hit the water with a belly flop, leaving her with several broken ribs, a bruised esophagus and an injured trachea.
"I went to the top of the bridge and my other -- my friend ... she came up to the bridge with me," Holgerson told Portland. "And so, she was counting down, but I didn't think anything of it. And I was like, 'No, don't count down, like, I won't go if you count down. I'm not ready.' And then, she pushed me."
Holgerson said she didn't feel any pain but adrenaline hit her after she was pushed into the water.
"And then an EMT that was off-duty helped me onto the rocks and just a whole bunch of people surrounding me were helping me, calming me down," Holgerson said.
"In the air I was trying to push myself forward, so I could be like straight up and down that make my head hit first but that definitely did not work," she told KATU during the interview at a hospital.
She said she's just grateful to be alive.
"I am happy to be OK," she said.
Smith did not return ABC News' request for comment.
