By Thomas Tracy
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — Members of the NYPD’s elite Emergency Services Unit rescued a distraught woman seated on the edge of a Brooklyn skyscraper 30 stories above the sidewalk, harrowing body-worn camera footage released Saturday shows.
“Don’t do it, please. Don’t do it, ma’am,” one cop implored the crying woman, grabbing hold of her hand as she sat at a windy corner of the Avalon Willoughby Square on Duffield St. near Willoughby St. in downtown Brooklyn at about 1:30 p.m. Thursday.
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The crying 41-year-old woman, wearing a black dress with no shoes, made it more than halfway up the 58-story skyscraper before she stepped out onto a corner sun deck and climbed over a plexiglass partition along the building’s edge.
When cops found her, she had one leg over the side and was holding onto an opening in the plexiglass. Responding officers reached out and grabbed her hand as they tried to calm her down and called ESU.
“Tell my mom and dad that I love them,” the sobbing woman said. A strong wind could be heard on the camera’s microphone, and the woman’s skirt could be seen flapping in the breeze.
“Please don’t do it, we care about you,” the cop said, begging the woman not to jump. “We don’t want you to hurt yourself.”
ESU members raced up to the sun deck where two cops tethered themselves to a chest-high wall on the roof and vaulted over the plexiglass partition to join he woman.
Through it all, the cops tried to calm the woman down as they asked her to join them back on the sun deck.
“I’m here now, OK,” one ESU cop is heard assuring the woman. “I told you I was going to come and help you. Listen to me, we’re going to do this together. We can sit here for 10 minutes. We can sit here for a half hour. I want to make sure you’re safe and you’re OK.”
“Whatever you are going through I will personally help you,” he said.
“No…not yet,” the frightened woman said.
The cop assured her that she didn’t have to move right away.
“I have you,” he said. “Trust me and believe me I have you. We’ll get through this together.”
The cops offered the woman a phone so she could call her mother as she built up the courage to climb back over the partition.
“Look where we’re at,” the ESU officer said as he looked out onto downtown Brooklyn, trying to lighten the mood. “We have the best view in the city.”
After a few moments, the woman agreed to go back over. The ESU cops assisted her back over the partition onto the sundeck.
Medics rushed the woman to an area hospital for an observation, an NYPD spokesman said.
“Heroism and heart from NY’s Finest,” the NYPD said on X as they posted the body-camera footage Saturday. “When a woman was seated on the ledge of a high-rise building in Brooklyn, our officers quickly responded, using their training to save her life.”
If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, counselors are available 24/7 to listen and support you at 988.
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