Heart-pounding footage shows the moment highly trained NYPD detectives climbed over a glass wall to rescue a distraught woman on the edge of a 54-story rooftop in Manhattan last week.
The dramatic rescue of the 33-year-old woman took place last Wednesday at a Midtown building on East 29th Street.
When members of NYPD’s emergency service unit (ESU) responded, they were initially separated from the woman by a glass divider, forcing police to undergo a rope operation to reach the victim, bodycam footage shows.
The ESU team received a call around 3:10 p.m. about a woman who appeared to be ready to jump from the ledge of the 54-floor building, police said.
The video posted online by the NYPD shows at least two ESU members holding onto the woman’s left arm through a slight opening of the seven-foot high barriers.
The footage then cuts to an officer tethered to a rope jumping over the glass wall to join another ESU member who was already assisting the woman on the ledge.
The two ESU detectives then hoisted the woman above the glass wall while police waited on the other side to grab onto her, the footage shows. One of the rescuers reassured her, “You’re OK.”
The woman was taken to Bellevue Hospital, authorities said.
“When the public needs help, they call the police,” the NYPD said in its social media post. “When the police need help, they call ESU.”
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
