ABOVE: NYPD officers talk a suicidal woman down from jumping off the Kosciuszko Bridge
TORONTO – Sometimes, the most valuable service a police officer can render is to simply be a calm, reassuring voice – maybe the last one you hear.
Thankfully, that was not the case this past Monday, when two veteran NYPD officers managed to talk a suicidal woman down off New York’s Kosciuszko Bridge.
The 45-year-old woman was threatening to jump from the bridge, 150 feet above Newtown Creek, after finding out that her husband was leaving her.
NYPD detectives Meghan Kinsella and Steven Stefanakos spent nearly two hours trying to convince the woman not to end her life, while aerial footage captured the dramatic end to the standoff.
“I tried to convince her that no matter what, we would be with her every step of the way,” Detective Kinsella, a 14-year NYPD veteran of the force, told CBS New York.
“I told her, ‘I don’t know what is going on and what is happening with you, but give us a chance to talk to you,’” Added Stefanakos, a 24-year veteran of the NYPD.
While police are rightfully withholding the woman’s identity, they did reveal she is a Polish immigrant and mother to a 14-year-old boy and 10-year-old girl.
That was how the two officers were eventually able to talk her down: by telling her she had to be there for her children.
“I’m a mom, so I just wanted to get her home safe with her family,” Kinsella said.
“The biggest part seemed to be for us is when we started talking about family and some of the things that she was going through and some of the things that we had gone through in our lives,” Stefanakos said.
Eventually, the woman was helped off the bridge – and right into Kinsella’s arms.
“The first thing I did was I actually grabbed her, hugged her and kissed her and said, ‘You’re so brave,’” Kinsella said.
“And she goes, ‘You’re going to help me. You said you were going to help me.’ And I said, ‘I’ll help you as much as I can.’”
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