Officers Rescue Man Who Jumps From Marine Parkway Bridge

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Four police officers successfully rescued a man who jumped off the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge Thursday afternoon.

NYPD officers Matthew Simpson, Christopher Schlitt, Rohail Khalid, Kristo Cevi – all of the 63rd Precinct in Brooklyn, were sent to the bridge connecting Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn with the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens at 1:54 p.m., police said.

They found a witness who directed them to a man who had scaled a support pillar on the bridge and was threatening to jump off, police said.

The officers found the 62-year-old man and tried to talk to him, but he appeared despondent and said nothing, police said. He instead took out a knife and tried to cut his wrist, police said.

The man then began emptying his pockets and threw his personal effects in the water, police said. Afterward, he himself jumped off the bridge toward the water, police said.

The officers lunged for the falling man and pulled him onto the pedestrian walkway, where he was taken into custody, police said.

The man was taken to Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, where he was met by his daughter. He was being evaluated at the hospital and treated for superficial wounds to his wrist late Thursday.