Police rescue suicidal teen from Brooklyn Bridge

On Wednesday, September 10 around 7:30 p.m., NYPD officers assigned to the Brooklyn Bridge were alerted to a suicidal teen perched mid-span on a crossbeam above the Brooklyn-bound roadway.

Police Officer Donnell Graves, assigned to the bridge’s footpath, quickly found the 14-year-old girl high on a beam above the outer portion of the road, and attempted to start a conversation. Police Officer Philip Hirsh, assigned to the bridge’s roadway, responded in a marked police car, which he stopped in the middle of the bridge prior to scaling a support structure in order to get close enough to the despondent teen for conversation.

The girl, whose back was to the officers as she faced the water, looking down, was convinced to turn toward police and sit on the support beam. As Graves continued speaking with the crying teen, he steadily approached and soon began guiding her back toward the pedestrian walkway. When almost there, the distraught girl stopped walking on her own and told the officer, “Let me go, let me go.”

At that point, Graves grabbed the teen around her waist, turned her and quickly passed her down to waiting officers on the walkway below. Emergency Medical Services transported the teenager to Bellevue Hospital for evaluation.