On October 6th at 3:45pm, the Barnegat Police Department received numerous emergency calls from citizens and motorists reporting that a female subject had walked out onto the Garden State Parkway overpass on West Bay Avenue and was on the ledge on the outside of the fence hanging over the parkway.
Multiple officers arrived on location within one minute of the call being dispatched. The officers observed that a female subject had walked out onto the ledge of the overpass outside of the fence and was standing on the narrow ledge over the parkway, clinging to the fence.
Ptl. Alex Hoffman, Ptl. Tim Bradshaw, Ptl. Brett Taylor, and recent academy graduates Ptl. Kyle Cranmer and Ptl. Anthony Carlo controlled traffic on the overpass and initiated a dialogue with the female (later determined to be a juvenile) from the roadway side of the fence. At the same time, Sergeant Jeff Ryan stopped the northbound traffic on the Garden State Parkway from traveling under the overpass.
While the juvenile was distracted by the other officers, Ptl. Andrew Parsley and Ptl. Bryan Nogowski stepped undetected onto the outside portion of the overpass where they were able to grab the juvenile and forcibly pulled her off of the ledge (despite her resistance) before she could fall or jump.
The juvenile was uninjured and was transported to Southern Ocean Medical Center for evaluation.
Ptl. Parsley, Ptl. Nogowski, and Ptl. Taylor had finished their shifts and were leaving for the day, but upon hearing the call dispatched responded to the scene due to their close proximity and the nature of the call.
