Quick-thinking cops saved a distraught Staten Island man from leaping off the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge Saturday— where a spate of suicides in 2019 had prompted lawmakers to push for safety barriers, sources told The Post.
The 42-year-old man stopped his car in the middle of the Brooklyn-bound lane of the bridge around noon and was standing near the side of the bridge when officers from the MTA Bridge and Tunnel unit arrived, police sources said.
The man told cops he was upset over custody issues with his children, the sources said.
Bridge and Tunnel Officer Justin McCarthy was able to talk the man away from the edge and calm him until he was taken to Richmond University Medical Center for observation.
“McCarthy was determined that this distraught individual wasn’t going to be the first suicide at the Verrazano under his watch,” a police source told The Post.
The bridge saw a string of suicides over the last year, prompting the MTA to install stainless-steel suicide-prevention safety fencing on each level of the Brooklyn-to-Staten Island roadway.
It was not immediately clear whether the safety barriers had deterred the man from jumping before officers arrived.