LOS ANGELES (CBS) — A videotape surfaced on Friday of a distraught man who was threatening to jump from the roof of a 13-story apartment building in downtown Los Angeles before he was rescued by police officers.

The unidentified man, about 30, was pulled to safety by officers about 6 p.m. Thursday at 111 W. Seventh St., said Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Paul Vernon of the Central Station.

The man was upset over a breakup with his girlfriend, and was on the street side of an iron railing along the edge of the roof when officers pulled him to safety. They secured him by handcuffing him to the railing until firefighters arrived, Vernon said.

The man, whose name was withheld, was taken to a hospital and placed on a 72-hour psychiatric hold.

He bit the arm of one of his rescuers, Officer Rick Linton, but the four-year veteran didn’t let go of him, Vernon said.

“The most amazing thing about this is the officers’ commitment to saving this man in the face of danger to their own lives,” Vernon said.

“What the public doesn’t always realize or appreciate is, this is the kind of selfless acts their police officers perform daily,” he said.

The video was taken by “an independent observer watching the rescue,” Vernon said.

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