Portsmouth cop sprang into action to prevent bridge jump

‘They don’t teach you stuff like that in the Academy,’ says Officer Bruce Celico

Jim Mcgaw
Posted 1/14/19

PORTSMOUTH — Officer Bruce Celico got the call while he was at the weigh station on Route 24 South around 2:50 a.m. on Jan. 8.

“We got a BOLA (“be on the lookout” …

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Portsmouth cop sprang into action to prevent bridge jump

‘They don’t teach you stuff like that in the Academy,’ says Officer Bruce Celico

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — Officer Bruce Celico got the call while he was at the weigh station on Route 24 South around 2:50 a.m. on Jan. 8.

“We got a BOLA (“be on the lookout” report) from Tiverton PD about a subject who had made comments that they were going to drive their vehicle to the Mt. Hope Bridge and basically jump off it,” said Officer Celico, a 10-year police veteran who came to Portsmouth three and a half years ago after previously serving in Westerly.

“I was at the bridge probably within a minute, minute and a half. I saw the vehicle stopped and there was a second vehicle behind it,” he said. 

The other car had been driven by a family member who followed the juvenile onto the bridge, Officer Celico said. (To protect the juvenile’s identity, police are not releasing the youth’s name, sex or age, only confirming that he or she was of driving age.)

“As I got out of my car, I heard a little bit of a commotion — yelling and screaming,” said Officer Celico, adding the family member was struggling with the juvenile. 

It was an emotional scene 135 feet above the waters of Mt. Hope Bay.

“It went from zero to 100 in a matter of seconds. At one point, you could hear (the juvenile) hit the gas pedal, trying to take off. One of the family members put it in park and took the keys,” he said.

That’s when the juvenile tried to bolt from the car, and Officer Celico sprang into action.

“So then I approached and basically pinned the juvenile inside of the car — basically putting all my weight on the kid,” he said. “In the meantime I tried to radio my guys and try to get Bristol up there in case anything else happened. Everything happened within seconds.”

While Officer Celico waited for backup, the pinned juvenile kept expressing suicidal thoughts, saying he/she “should have done it before,” said Officer Celico, a father himself.

Two more Portsmouth officers, Jean Marie Stewart and Matthew Wilson, arrived on the scene along with the Portsmouth Fire Department and Bristol Police. Police handcuffed the youth as a safety precaution, and rescue workers transported the juvenile to a hospital.

“Everything ended safely,” he said.

Instincts took over

When asked how much of his police training came into play during the incident, Officer Celico said his instincts basically took over.

“They don’t teach you stuff like that in the Academy,” he said.

With two bridges in town, however, police still have to be on high alert for potential jumpers, he said. “You at least try to formulate a plan on, what if this happens?”

Nothing could have prepared him for the situation he faced on Jan. 8, however.

“This is my first true bridge incident, when you get a call about someone who wants to do harm to themselves by means of jumping off the bridge, and then you show up and they’re there,” he said. “Either they’ve already done it before you get there, or they’re just not there in general.”

Hoping youth gets help

Although it was a good day for him as a police officer — “Absolutely; you prevented a tragedy,” he said — Officer Celico realizes the juvenile who drove onto the Mt. Hope Bridge could face a long road to recovery.

“Once they get brought to the hospital, the hospital resources kind of take over from there,” he said. Hopefully the youth was set up with a social worker or counselor, and will have followup treatment from a doctor, he said.

“I talked to my wife about it afterward, because she’s a nurse,” he said. “She sees it every day. Mental health nowadays is one of those areas that, I don’t want to say goes overlooked, but there are so many problems out there that probably go untreated. I told my wife, you just don’t know nowadays. Just because someone looks happy go-lucky on the outside, you don’t know the demons they’re fighting.

“Whether or not this was a cry for help or this juvenile was actually going to go through with it, honestly we’ll never know — because we got there.”

Portsmouth Police Department, Mt Hope Bridge

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Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.