Police Coax Woman Down From Catwalk On Brooklyn Bridge
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Despite extremely tight security at the Brooklyn Bridge, an incident Friday afternoon had police scrambling to rescue a woman in a very dangerous place.
As CBS2's Sonia Rincon reported, the woman made it onto a tiny catwalk at the end of the bridge, as a large crowd gathered and took pictures. She was holding a sign with the words, "leave me alone," and "innocent."
A witness described the woman as "basically, somebody that was calling for help."
Witnesses watched as a police Emergency Service Unit team went into action.
"She was speaking really incoherently. We couldn't make much sense of what she was saying," said NYPD Officer Connor Farrell. "But she seemed very upset, so we just kept telling her we were here to help her."
Farrell said he and his fellow officers did their best to calm the woman down, but she was very distraught.
"She was making all the motions like she was intent on hurting herself," Farrell said.
The walkway on which the woman was spotted is blocked off by a fence – but there is also space enough that someone determined enough can get around the fence in question.
Police from the 84th Precinct in Brooklyn are always on patrol at the bridge, and they were able to let the ESU team know exactly where the woman was.
"It's a very large bridge – it's over three miles long, I believe -- so it's impossible to cover every square inch of that bridge," said Detective John DiGregorio. "So sometimes, things do happen, and that's why the Emergency Service Unit's here, to, you know, bring people down to safety when they think they don't have any other option."
"Unfortunately, you know, people get to that state. They think that's all that's left," said Detective John McKenna. "But we're there to try to convince them otherwise."
Witnesses watched as officers eventually convinced the woman to come down.
"They had signs and they had a pill bottle, and they were hugging each other that everything was OK, and the police were congratulating," said witness Lon Lawder of Pittsburgh. "They were all grateful that it ended well."
The woman was taken to a hospital for an evaluation.
