Boy, 16, Saved From Hudson River Off Liberty State Park

JERSEY CITY, NJ — A New Jersey State Park police officer and a bystander rescued a 16-year-old boy from the Hudson River off Liberty State Park last Thursday night, in what police say was a suicide attempt.

The young man had jumped into the frigid river off a nearby pedestrian bridge, said police. Visitors to Liberty State Park said they heard him calling for help from the river, and police and bystanders were able to convince him to swim to shore.

At about 9 p.m. last Thursday, Oct. 8 a visitor to Liberty State Park in Jersey City called 911, saying they saw a young man yelling for help in the Hudson River between Ellis Island and Liberty State Park.

Matt Spadaro, an officer with New Jersey State Park Police, responded to the scene, where he was flagged down by numerous park visitors.

Spadaro was able to climb down the bulkhead to the river and speak to the young man in the water. Police said the teen boy was in an altered mental status and suffering from hypothermia in the water, which had already turned cold.

Police said Spadaro talked the boy into swimming to the shoreline, where he and the person who first called 911 were able to hand a rescue torpedo to pull the boy onto the rocks.

The boy was later identified as a 16-year-old from Jersey City who jumped off the pedestrian bridge in an apparent suicide attempt, said park police. The young man was taken to Jersey City Medical Center, where he was treated and released to his parents.