Conn. Police Officer on Emotional Bridge Rescue: 'It Was Two Humans That Needed Something'

A Connecticut police officer says the recent rescue of a man as he sat on the edge of a bridge has had a profound impact on him.

And it was the moment from that May 3 encounter that has lingered with Groton Police Officer Bryan Albee. It was when the man, who was suffering a mental health crisis at the time, asked Albee for a hug.

"It touched me," he told WTIC-TV. "That was something that he trusted me with, and that I trusted him with as well."

Albee, along with Officer Cristopher Brillon, responded to a call from ambulance personnel who saw a distressed man straddling the security barrier on the Gold Star Bridge, according to the department. The officers created a positive rapport with the man, who eventually agreed to come away from the edge of the bridge if Albee would give him a hug.

"It just felt like it wasn’t me as a police officer, and it wasn’t him as somebody else," Albee told WTIC of the experience. "It was two humans and two men that needed something."