A 44-year-old named Galymzhan Abaildayev climbed up the north tower on the Manhattan side of the bridge before stripping naked and jumping into the river
on Sunday.
On Sunday, August 2, Abaildayev climbed the north tower before stripping naked and jumping into the East River, surviving a fall of nearly 278 feet.
The climb occurred around 2:30 p.m. On Sunday, according to police.
He had placed several flags atop the bridge including the flag of Kazakhstan before making the jump.
The sudden maneuver prompted NYPD officers to immediately shut down pedestrian walkways, stalling afternoon foot traffic as emergency personnel rushed to secure the area.
Officers from NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit responded and climbed up the north tower to try to talk the man down to safety.
But it didn’t work. As the parties were chatting, the man jumped off the tower, splashing into the East River below.
Video from the scene shows bystanders screaming as Abaildayev leapt from the tower, apparently holding a piece of cloth or a bag above his head like a makeshift parachute.
Officers from NYPD Harbor Unit quickly pulled him from the water and rushed him to Bellevue Hospital where he was reported to be in stable condition.
Abaildayev was arrested after treatment.
He was charged with reckless endangerment, trespassing, public indecency, disorderly conduct and graffiti making.
Abaildayev’s roommate Josh Karadag, 43, claimed that the man had been inspired by two people who leapt off the bridge last month, and said he planned to do the same thing on his birthday.
“He was telling me he was going to do it,” Karadag alleged to the outlet. “Yesterday was his birthday. He said, ‘I’m gonna jump from the bridge and he did.'”
He turned out to be an activist opposed to the Kazakh government.
Karadag says that he warned his roommate not to go through with the stunt. “I told him not to do it,” he said to the outlet. “I told him he would leave his mother and father behind. He said, ‘I don’t mind.’ He never wanted to live. It was obvious he was going to jump.”
Karadag said: “I always tell him, ‘Can you change anything in Kazakhstan? No, you can’t, so live your life, brother,'”
Abaildayev had a backpack and two flags with him, according to police. The police department did not provide additional information as to what was on the flags.
What began as a sunny Sunday afternoon along the East River quickly descended into a chaotic public spectacle when the 44-year-old Brooklyn man was fished out of the river by the NYPD waiting in boats.
The suspect, identified by authorities as Galymzhan Abaildayev, climbed the north tower on the Manhattan side of the bridge around 2:30 p.m..
Abaildayev allegedly stripped down after reaching the top of the bridge’s north tower. He then jumped from the top of the bridge’s tower into the East River, where police said he was rescued by the department’s harbor unit.
While formal statements from NYPD command have focused on the sequence of events and charges, investigators have not officially released a motive for his actions or clarified the significance of the flags left high above the city or of the mysterious objects left behind.
It’s unclear whether he has retained an attorney.