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Port Authority Officer Uses Cellphone To Intercept Suicidal Teen At GWB

FORT LEE, N.J. -- A Port Authority police lieutenant kept a suicidal teenager talking on his cellphone long enough Friday afternoon for colleagues to keep him from jumping off the George Washington Bridge.

GWB

GWB

Photo Credit: Jerry DeMarco

The NYPD notified Lt. George Masouridis that a "special category" missing person alert was issued for the 17-year-old Bronx boy, who had a history of mental illness, the authority's Joseph Pentangelo said Friday.

"They believed [he] intended to do harm to himself and was in the vicinity of the bridge," Pentangelo told Daily Voice.

The boy had posted a photo of the GWB on social media and told family members he intended to jump, Pentangelo said.

Masouridis, who is assigned to the bridge, collected all the information he could about the teen, then searched the bridge and surrounding area.

After getting his cellphone number, the lieutenant called him around 3:15 p.m.

Masourdis was able to determine that the boy was on the corner of Center Avenue and Slocum Street in Fort Lee, Pentangelo said.

He relayed the information to fellow PAPD officers who grabbed him there, he said.

Fort Lee EMS took him to Bergen County Regional Medical Center in Paramus for observation and possible treatment, Pentangelo said.

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