Jumper Rescued From 70th Floor of 30 Rock
Thousands of New York tourists and office workers watched in horror on Wednesday afternoon as a distraught 23-year-old man dangled 70 stories above Rockefeller Plaza, threatening to jump onto the site of the famed skating rink below. The man wore "an American flag bandana on his face and...a tie," and had "several bags, one of which has a jug of water, and was handing policemen letters with...messages on them," Gothamist reports. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon bandleader Questlove also noted via Twitter, "holy lord—-why is this on the camera feed like in HD?!!?!?!?? like i can see his nose hair! wtf!," later adding, "Whew!!!!! They got him!!!!!!!!! Now beat his ass for ruining my lunch."
Credit for saving the man, and Questlove's lunch, goes to officers from NYPD's elite Emergency Services Unit, who climbed onto a nearby ledge and talked the man down, eventually grabbing him from the other side of the glass partition and returning him to safety. He was brought to Bellevue Hospital for psychiatric evaluation.
"He was very apologetic," said [ESU Detective Shawn] Soler, "he stated over and over again that he was sorry for taking everyone's time and we reassured him at that point that we were there to help him."