Harbor Cops Rescue Suicidal Staten Island Ferry Jumper

The Andrew J. Barberi (Flickr user AllWaysNY)

Reports of a woman overboard from the Staten Island Ferry were sent to an NYPD boat patrolling near lower Manhattan around 7:50 last night, beginning a high stakes rescue of a possibly suicidal woman. The woman plunged into the water near the Statue of Liberty, jumping from—of all ships—the Andrew J. Barberi, aka the "Ferry of Doom."

Once officers William Chartier, Eric Storch and Peter Jessnik got close, they heard the 24-year-old woman screaming, "I can't swim! I can't swim!" Jessnik and Storch threw her a life raft and pulled her onto their 55-foot vessel. However, once safely on the boat, she began saying "I want to die." Storch said, "She was shaking like a leaf. She was in shock."

The woman is currently stable at New York Downtown Hospital, and Chartier said they were lucky to get to her as quickly as they did. "She wasn't going to last too much longer in the water. We got her just in time."

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By Jaya Saxena in News on September 12, 2010 9:55 AM

Comments [rss]

John L

So she jumps hoping to drown, then realizes that she can't swim and gets rescued, then remembers again that she wants to die.

I'm confused.

exnyer

Jumping off Ferry does not qualify as legitimate suicide attempt.......ask the 9/11 Brooklyn Bridge jumper, oh you can`t she, was successful.

aalmeida259

I think she just really did not want to go to Staten Island.

Kelles

maybe it's time to change the name of that ferry?

Troy

wow, if more resources were availible for local 333 deckhands, then the deck hands would be able to be the first responders they were meant to be and not just porters, oh...that is now being contracted out too....