A dramatic Twitter video shows the moment a brave bystander and a state trooper prevented a suicidal elderly man from jumping off the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
#Breaking news: Friend of mine on the Verezano behind car that suddenly stops with driver getting out and going to railing. My friend asks what are you doing and guy says jumping. Hell NO. @nyspolice trooper passing by jumps out to help and then @NYPDSpecialops. pic.twitter.com/cU1BIgEM5K
— nycphotog (@nycphotog) March 31, 2019
The man, who MTA officials said was 79 or 80 years old, stopped his car and tried to jump over the railing from the from Brooklyn-bound side at about 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
“Friend of mine on the (Verrazano) behind car that suddenly stops with driver getting out and going to railing. My friend asks what are you doing and guy says jumping. Hell NO,” wrote Twitter user @nycphotog, who first posted the video.
The video shows Jacob Abraham, 31, and the trooper struggling with the man at the railing, while Abraham’s wife takes video from their car. The trooper starts waving for help, and another trooper and bystander join the duo, followed by NYPD Emergency Services Unit officers.
They pull the man away from the railing while Abraham’s wife repeats, “Oh my god!”
Abraham’s father, Isaac, said his son was driving into work at an event he was catering in Brooklyn when he saw the man stop his car and get out.
“He yells out of the window. He asked the man, ‘Where are you going?’” Isaac Abraham recounted.
“I’m going to jump,” the man said. Abraham responded, “No you’re not!” He jumped out of his car and grabbed the man, who was already over the railing, by the belt, while his wife called 911.
As several motorists passed, a trooper patrolling the bridge pulled up, likely thinking he was responding to a crash, Isaac Abraham said. The trooper saw the struggle, and jumped in to help.
Medics took the man to Lutheran Hospital for evaluation.
Isaac Abraham, a community activist in Williamsburg, said he was “proud and honored” by his son’s actions, adding that too often people film trouble with their cell phones instead of intervening to help.
“Carry it as a badge of honor. You saved somebody’s life,” he said.
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