#MTA bridge cops intercept teen who posted suicide plans on Snapchat

MTA cops staged a heroic rescue Tuesday night after a coworker’s teenage son posted on Snapchat about his imminent plans to jump off the RFK Bridge.

Lt. John Trabulsky, 41, said the desperate dad, who works on the Throgs Neck Bridge, called into the the bridge’s command center at 5:23 p.m. to alert cops that his 17-year-old son had posted on social media that he was headed for the RFK Bridge to commit suicide.

RFK patrolmen and NYPD cops rushed to canvass the massive three-borough bridge, which has three spans and 18 exits and entrances. When officers spotted their target on the bridge’s pedestrian path just above Astoria Park, the young man fled toward the river.

“At that height above the water, it was on everybody’s mind that we were down to the final seconds if he did make that decision to go over the wall,” said Lt. Dennis Palazzola, 31, one of three cops who found the teen.

“Based on some of the messages that he had posted or conversations that he had, it was indicated that he had made it over the bridge, and he was on the walkway, possibly even down to Randall’s Island,” Palazzola said.

“But he was hanging up the phone when he spoke to his father. It was very difficult to gain the intel that we needed.”

Accompanied by the boy’s father, the officers finally apprehended him at 6:05 p.m. — 42 minutes after the initial frantic call.

“The desk officer repeated everything the caller said loud enough for me to hear it, so before he had a chance to start making the calls, I was already on the phone giving everyone a heads up,” said Trabulsky, who also works out of Throgs Neck.

“Within seconds of him hanging up the phone with the person’s father — within seconds — we had command notified and we had the RFK Bridge notified.”

The teen’s father warned his son might be on a scooter, and he was wearing a mask that obscured his face.

“I saw him on the walkway on a scooter, was able to positively identify him by that photo, initiated conversation with him,” Lt. Thomas Shaw said.

“He was emotional, he was distraught, he was upset, but we were able to identify him from that picture.”

The young man was handcuffed and taken to Elmhurst Hospital for evaluation, the MTA said.

“It would have been really easy to say, you know, he’s just posting on Facebook to be dramatic,” said MTA Bridges and Tunnels Director of Special Operations Richard Hildebrand.

“It just seemed imminent. We knew that we had to figure out who he was, where he was and what he was going to do.”