NYPD officer’s car found abandoned on Throgs Neck Bridge, suicide feared
A Honda belonging to a Brooklyn NYPD officer was found abandoned on the Throgs Neck Bridge — and police are trying to determine if the cop jumped to his death from the span, police sources said Tuesday.
State police found the 2014 Honda Civic abandoned near the Bronx side of the bridge about 10:15 p.m. on Monday. The car’s license plates come back to an NYPD officer assigned to a Brooklyn precinct. An NYPD form was also found in the car, a source said.
Based on surveillance footage and witness accounts, detectives believe someone exited the car and jumped from the bridge, but it wasn’t immediately clear if the person was a man or a woman, a source said.
Investigators closed off two lanes on the bridge as they conducted an investigation that lasted until 4:15 a.m., a spokesman for MTA Bridges and Tunnels said Tuesday.
As of Tuesday morning, a body had not been recovered from the waters around the bridge. The car was ultimately towed to the Bronx’s 45th Precinct for further investigation.
The city saw a rise in police suicides in 2019 and 2020, leading the NYPD to step up its mental health outreach for cops in distress.
In 2019, the department ordered its officers to complete a mandatory suicide prevention training course and is continually offering mental health resources through the NYPD’s employee assistance unit, the chaplain unit and Police Organization Providing Peer Assistance.
