Lt. Tom Fitzpatrick of the Glen Cove Police Department has reported that on the morning of Aug. 2, a 27-year-old Glen Cove man being held for arraignment at Glen Cove City Court on charges of driving while under the influence of drugs, reckless driving, possession of marijuana, and several other traffic infractions, was saved from taking his own life by Glen Cove Police Officers and a NYS Court Officer who were present at the court.

While sitting in one of the two detention cells inside the court building waiting for arraignment, said Lt. Fitzpatrick, the man, who had been arrested the night before by the Glen Cove Police, found a window of opportunity to take off his T-shirt and use it to asphyxiate himself by tying one end around his neck and looping the other end around the caged door of the cell.

Being a very large individual at 6'8" tall and 250 lbs., said the lieutenant, it didn't take long for the slumping weight of the man's body to constrict his homemade ligature to the point where it became potentially lethal. He was discovered straightaway by Officer Jack Mancusi, and with assistance from the other officers, the man was hoisted and Officer Mancusi used a knife from his utility belt to cut him free. Once the shirt was cut from his neck, the man resumed breathing on his own. First aid was immediately administered in the way of oxygen, said Lt. Fitzpatrick, and the man was transported by Glen Cove EMS to North Shore Hospital at Glen Cove. Shortly thereafter, he was transferred to North Shore Hospital at Manhasset, where he was originally listed in critical condition. In the days following the incident, said the lieutenant, the man's condition improved considerably and he has been released from the hospital.

Lt. Fitzpatrick said, "In a situation where a person is taken into custody, it is routine to perform a thorough search and make every reasonable effort to protect such a person from harming himself. In the case of this particular individual, he gave no outward signs of being at all despondent and his apparent attempt to take his own life came as a shock to everyone he came in contact with during his time in our custody."

The lieutenant explained that when the carotid artery in the neck is compressed in a case such as this, and the flow of blood restricted, it only takes seconds to lose consciousness - and a very short time after that when it becomes lethal. He said it was extremely fortunate that the police discovered this attempt so quickly and also to have had an officer at the scene who is a registered nurse and able to administer advanced medical aid had the situation called for it. "Sometimes law enforcement officers are called upon not only to protect the public from dangerous people, but to protect people from themselves; it's the nature of the work that we do," said Lt. Fitzpatrick.