UPDATE: Officer Jones named 2025 RISE Awards Finalist
BATON ROUGE — Officer Jones has been named a finalist for the prestigious 2025 RISE Awards, an honor recognizing first responders who go above and beyond in service to their communities. The selection comes as a panel of judges reviews finalists to determine this year’s winners.
The RISE Awards, presented by Axon, celebrate law enforcement officers, firefighters, and EMS personnel who demonstrate exceptional courage, leadership, and dedication. Officer Jones’ nomination highlights their outstanding actions in the line of duty, earning the respect and admiration of colleagues and community members alike.
If selected as a winner, Officer Jones will be featured on Axon’s social media platforms, further highlighting their impactful contributions to public safety.
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BATON ROUGE — She’s one of the hundreds of men and women who put on a uniform, badge and gun belt daily before saying goodbye to their loved one to do the job they took an oath to uphold, not even knowing if they will make it home or not. She’s also a mother, who made it a point that another woman, made it back home to her children.
Baton Rouge Police Officer Jakiya Jones, 27, is up for a ‘Life Saving Award’ from Axon RISE Awards. That’s the company that numerous law enforcement officials across the country use for their body cameras. The footage caught on her body-worn camera captured her saving a woman on the other side of the Mississippi River Bridge, threatening to jump if anyone came close to her.
It was May 6, 2024 just after 11 p.m. on I-10 westbound when Officer Jones responded to a call on the new bridge. On the other side of the railing and inches from jumping, was a woman having an emotional breakdown.
“I’m done, I’m done! I’m done fighting. I don’t want to fight anymore,” she’s heard screaming on the officer’s body-worn camera.
“Upon my arrival, actually seeing someone up there, and on the side of the railing where the concrete is not very long, I was shocked and had this gut punch in my stomach,” Officer Jones told UWK as she recounted the night.
The officer was the first to respond to the scene and said her CIT (Critical Incident Training) kicked in immediately.
“She didn’t want any of us to come close to her. That was the first thing out of her mouth. She was like, ‘Don’t come near me, or I’m gonna jump. So my mind was racing on how to ask, what to say, what not to say, because going back and looking at the footage now, I would have said things different, but in my head right then and there, this is somebody’s mother, daughter, sister, it’s somebody’s family member. I thought we can’t just let it happen like this,” said Officer Jones.
The officer, who has been with BRPD since 2022, said she studied the woman’s movements and when she thought she had a chance to slip, she made her move.
“I grabbed her as hard as I could, as tight as I could. I didn’t want her to slip and in the midst of me grabbing her, I was pulling back, pushing my legs against the rail, so there’ll be no way that she could try to pull me over with her,” she told UWK.
The woman was successfully pulled over and she did receive the help she needed. Officer Jones says she did not keep in touch with the woman, figuring she needed her space and did not want to continue reminding her of that day.
“It just felt good to know that I didn’t have to watch it happen the way that it could have and that she is getting the help that she needed.”
Although that was Officer Jones’ first time truly saving a life, she told UWK she’s applied tourniquets at shooting scenes in the city. But the officer is not new to helping people. She recalled working extra duty at the Louisiana Marathon last year, where she said a man fell out while he was running.
“He started turning blue and me and another officer (Cpl. Jonathon Marcell) were first to the scene and we started CPR. We learned a few hours later that he had a heart attack and our efforts helped keep him alive,” she said.
She’s not on Facebook and was not aware that she was up for an award. Despite being nominated for the award, she says she doesn’t wear a badge for that reason. In the case of a woman on the bridge, she felt a particular connection to her because she too, is a mother.
“She was able to go home and see her kids again after giving up. I’m a mom so that just pulled on my heartstrings,” she said as she held back tears. “You’re able to come home after having such a bad mental breakdown and see your kids again because somebody stopped you from doing something that, in the moment, you thought would be okay and make things better, when in reality, it will hurt everyone around you.”
That ‘somebody’ just happened to be Officer Jakiya Jones, a local hero, who responded just in time.
“Our officers do work daily that’s award worthy, but it’s great to see one of ours being recognized on a national level. What many people don’t realize is how many hats our officers wear and that each officer goes through CIT (critical incident training), which helped in this case. I’m very proud of Officer Jones and ask you to go vote for her daily through Jan. 27th,” said Baton Rouge Police Chief T.J. Morse.
Officer Jakiya Jones is up for the 2025 Axon RISE Award for her actions that night that saved a life. Voting for the award is open to everyone and started on January 13. It runs through January 27. The RISE Awards celebrate the incredible and often untold stories of heroism from first responders in the U.S. and Canada.
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