Man Survives Jump From Palisades Overlook, Dies Shortly Thereafter: Police

A man who jumped from an overlook in the Palisades Interstate Park in Alpine initially survived the fall, but died while being rescued, police said.

The Ridgefield Park Police Department notified the Palisades Interstate Park Police Department they were looking for a suicidal male, police said. Officer David Moscaritolo found a vehicle matching the description Ridgefield Park police put out in the Alpine section of the park near the Women’s Federation Monument, police said.

Officers began searching the area on foot; officers Timothy Conboy and Detective Lt. Roman Galloza found a man wearing a dark blue T-shirt sitting on the cliff’s edge about 1,000 feet south of the monument at an overlook, police said.

The man, Michael Shaffer, provided police with information as to what led him to that spot, police said.

Shaffer continued talking with the officers for several minutes, when, without warning, he jumped off the cliff, police said.

The regional rappel team was notified and responded to the area and found Shaffer severely injured, unconscious, and breathing, police said.

While being taken from the area, Shaffer’s condition “rapidly deteriorated and went into “traumatic cardiac arrest” by the time he was brought up, police said. Authorities administered CPR, but Shaffer was pronounced dead when he was brought to the Medevac unit at State Line Lookout, police said.

Shaffer was 38 years old and lived in Bergenfield. The investigation has been concluded and Shaffer’s death was ruled a suicide, police said.

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com. Sign up for Patch N.J. email newsletters here.