Bogalusa’s Joel Miller said he couldn’t believe what he was seeing in the middle of the road Wednesday night on his way back from a meeting in Baton Rouge.

“I was listening to my gospel music about six miles out of Franklinton and I run up on a guy with dark clothing on ahead of me in the middle of the road,” Miller said. “The 18-wheeler behind me nearly hit the guy and me.”

Miller said he turned around to offer any assistance he could.

“He said he and his family got into a fight and he just wanted to kill himself,” Miller said. “He didn’t seem to be drunk or on drugs, but just seemed to be out of it.”

Miller said the man then ran in front of an approaching car.

“I pulled him back in the nick of time,” Miller said. “A Sheriff’s Office deputy then arrived.”

Washington Parish Sheriff Randy Seal said the man was taken to Our Lady of the Angels Hospital in Bogalusa. Seal said the man, who lives in Franklinton, somehow appeared at the Sheriff’s Office in Bogalusa after leaving the hospital.

“We arrested him as he was being abusive,” Seal said. “We tried to help him, but he got belligerent. He had a warrant out for him for misdemeanor failure to appear.”

Miller is on the board of Southeast Louisiana Legal Aid Services and was returning from a Legal Aid meeting. He said he was glad he could offer his assistance to the man in his time of need.

“I’m glad I was there to help him out that night. Had I not stopped and talked to him, he might have gotten hit by somebody. I don’t call myself a hero or anything. I’m just glad I was there to save him.”