NYPD Sergeant’s Quick Actions Save Suicidal Man

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NYPD News

“I noticed him move from his heels to his toes on the ledge of the roof and as he took off his shirt, I saw it as my last chance to save his life,” said Sergeant Cassidy.

“I dug my knee into the wall as I wrapped my arms around him and pulled back from the edge.”

Fourteen floors above the street an NYPD sergeant grabbed a distressed man and pulled him from the ledge of a building. Last month, Sergeant Brendan Cassidy of Police Service Area 4 (PSA 4) responded to 130 Columbia Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan for a call of an emotionally disturbed, suicidal person. The sergeant and his partner, along with members of PSA 4’s Anti-Crime team, arrived on the scene and immediately made their way up to the roof of the building. Once on the roof, the officers observed a 29-year-old man standing on the ledge.

The man was agitated and told the officers not to come any closer while he removed his shirt and moved closer to the outside ledge. Sergeant Cassidy used the crisis communication techniques that he had learned during the Crisis Intervention Team training (CIT) to develop a dialogue with the man. While trying to develop a dialogue, he noticed the man moved closer to the edge. At this moment, while still using his communications tactics he sprung forward and grabbed the man at the waist and pulled him safely back from the ledge. The man was then removed to Bellevue Hospital by emergency medical services personnel for psychiatric evaluation.

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