From his vantage point, Michael saw the woman dangling over the edge, heard her scream, and made a split second decision to run down the fire escape as quickly as possible to get to her. He jumped from where he was onto the top stair, and ran down two at a time, almost falling over. When he finally got to the 17th floor, he jumped in, picked up a shard of pottery lying on the floor, and threw it at whatever was holding the woman, aiming squarely between the shoulder- blades.