Residents Ask What Was The Large NYPD Presence On Roosevelt Island This Morning Closing Portions Of Main Street? - Man Threatened To Jump Off Motorgate Garage Roof, Rescued By NYPD Emergency Services Unit

A tipster reported this morning at 8:30:

Main Street north of Post Office is closed. NYPD ESU. Motorgate is closed too. What's happening?

According to the Roosevelt Island Twitterverse:

What is happening on @Rooseveltisland right now?? Heavy police activity at Motorgate and Main Street closure even to pedestrians. pic.twitter.com/F2Sef4QKr8

— Alessandro Monetti (@AlexMonetti_) November 5, 2019

Image from Allesandro Monetti

The Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) sent out this advisory at 9:05 AM:

Due to Police Activity, Main Street from 2 River Road to 40 River Road and Motorgate Garage will be shut down until further notice. We apologize for this inconvenience.

The Roosevelt Island Twitterverse adds:

Someone is trying to jump pic.twitter.com/a77hJUn0Q1

— rosyrosie (@rosiewu) November 5, 2019

Image From rosyrosie

Correct....someone has threatened to jump. The yellow blow up jump pad is set up in the last photo.

— Chris Yonner (@YonnerNYC) November 5, 2019

The incident began shortly after 7 AM. At approximately 10 AM the NYPD Emergency Services Unit talked the man down.

UPDATE 5:30 PM - Roosevelt Island resident Frank Farance witnessed the incident. Mr Farance shares these photos and reports:

Thank God that the jumper was talked down, did not take his life, and accepted help.

NONE of the photos include the jumper. The jumper is on the other side (south-facing). The first photo is around 08:30-ish when NYPD ESU was still negotiated with the jumper.

The second photo is the air cushion that was quickly inflated.

The third photo is the last moments where officers are pleading and reaching out to the jumper.

Moments later (and not in photos), the negotiations appear to be successful as the officers have switched from Negotiation to Rescue: officers taking precautions to safely extract the jumper from the ledge.

I prayed several times for the jumper, my prayers were answered, and we were all very relieved for the jumper to have turned away from suicide.