STATEN ISLAND — Cops braved high winds and lightning to carry out a dramatic video-taped rescue of an emotional Brooklyn man who had threatened to leap off the Verrazano Bridge for more than four hours Monday afternoon, the NYPD said.
The span's upper deck was shut down as police brought in a Cantonese-speaking officer to try to talk to the man who clung to cables on the bridge's outer ledge.
Officer Yi Huang rushed to the scene from the 5th Precinct in Chinatown.
As he talked with the man, who told Huang he was upset about his finances and the arguments he had been having with his 18-year-old daughter, the officer learned that they had both immigrated from Taishan, a city in southern China.
"Officer Huang spoke of his own family's experience, and asked him to think about seeing his daughter at her wedding, or meeting his grandchildren," the NYPD recounted in a press release.
The conversation, which took place in the middle of a storm, helped calm the man, police said.
He allowed Emergency Service Unit Detective Anthony Borowiec to clamber over the railing and help him back onto the bridge's roadway. He was taken into custody about 4:30 p.m. and taken by ambulance to Staten Island University Hospital, where he was in good condition.
Charges ultimately were not filed against him, police said.
