Heart-stopping video captured the moment skilled NYPD detectives scaled a glass barrier to save a distressed woman perched on the ledge of a 54-story building in Manhattan last week. This harrowing rescue occurred on Wednesday at a skyscraper on East 29th Street in Midtown.
The NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit (ESU) arrived to find a glass divider separating them from the 33-year-old woman. This necessitated a complex rope maneuver to reach her, as depicted in bodycam footage shared by the police.
The ESU team was alerted at around 3:10 p.m. about a woman seemingly poised to leap from the high-rise. The online video released by the NYPD displays two ESU officers grasping the woman's left arm through a small gap in the seven-foot tall barrier.
Subsequent footage shows an officer, secured by a rope, vaulting over the glass wall to aid a colleague who was already at the woman's side on the ledge.
The two detectives then lifted the woman over the barrier, where other officers were ready to assist her to safety, with one reassuring her, "You’re OK."
The woman was subsequently transported to Bellevue Hospital for care. The NYPD underscored the critical role of the ESU in their social media statement: “When the public needs help, they call the police. When the police need help, they call ESU.”
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NYPD ESU Dramatic 54th Floor Skyscraper Rescue