Monson Madness 2019 winner: Compassionate AZ cop Aaron Little

The votes are in, and the Monson Madness 2019 winner has been determined.

This year’s winner came from outside the Pacific Northwest, but voters were so touched by his compassion and calmness in the face of crisis that they could not help but vote for him. Chandler Police Officer Aaron Little of Chandler, Arizona took home the title of Awesome Audio of the Year

In the video, taken from Little’s body-cam in March, the officer encourages a suicidal man to climb down from the overpass fence off of which he is attempting to jump. Little does not panic, and shows the man nothing but love throughout the ordeal.

“I’ll hug you man, I don’t care — just come up here, I just want to talk to you, I swear,” Little says in the video. “I will give you a hug. Come up here, man. My first name is Aaron, okay? Everyone else calls me Ron. You want to call me Ron? I need you to come up here, okay?”

When the suicidal man finally climbs down, the two embrace. Little tells the sobbing man that he is welcome to put an arm around him as they walk away from the bridge.

“God bless him, and nice job — you picked well,” Dori told listeners. “That was my favorite of the year as well.”

The inspirational and heartwarming video was followed by second-place winner Willie Murphy, the 82-year-old Rochester, New York bodybuilder who single-handedly fought off a burglar.

Congratulations to Officer Little for earning the title of Monson Madness 2019 winner. Take a look at all of this year’s Monson Madness candidates here. If you want to relive last year’s winner — the construction workers who drowned out Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant during the head tax debate — click here.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.