Crime & Safety

[Update] Police ID Chappaqua Man as Bear Mountain Bridge Jumper

Police identified the man as Chatschik Bisdikian, 52, of Chappaqua.

Update, 4:15 p.m.: Police identified the man who jumped off the Bear Mountain Bridge this morning as Chatschik Bisdikian, 52, of Chappaqua.

Police said they were notifed about the incident at about 9:20 a.m. by two bridge walkers.

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Police are in the process of interviewing Bisdikian's family and were unable to say what led him to take his life.

Bisdikian worked as a research staff member with the IT & Wireless Convergence department group at IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, according to his profile. He was one of the author's of a book entitled "Bluetooth Revealed."

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Bisdikian was also an avid photographer who chronicled Chappaqua and its surroundings; a Facebook page of his called Dr. B's Photo Gallery serves as a picture collection.

His autopsy is scheduled for tomorrow.

A Chappaqua man died after jumping off of the Bear Mountain Bridge Wednesday morning, according to New York State Police.

The man was identified as 52-year-old Chatschik Bisdikian. Police said they were notifed about the incident at about 9:20 a.m. by two people who were walking nearby and discovered the man's body. 

An autopsy will be performed on Thursday, said Kelly Pawlak, an investigator from the state police's Cortlandt barracks.

Bisdikian was also an avid photographer who chronicled Chappaqua and its surroundings; a Facebook page of his called Dr. B's Photo Gallery serves as a picture collection.

The reported jump of someone from the Chappaqua area is the second of its kind in recent years. In November 2010, a 23-year-old man was identified by police as having jumped from the same bridge. 

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State trooper and parks police are investigating a bridge jumping incident that took place this morning on the Bear Mountain Bridge.

State police Capt. Michael Jankowiak said police are in the process of notifying the next of kin the man who jumped and expect to have more information shortly.

John Belluci, a spokesman for the New York State Bridge Authority, said the bridge contains four Lifeline phones for people contemplating suicide.

Belluci said he wasn’t sure the last time someone jumped off the bridge.

“The phones have been effective,” Belluci said. “But the mental health agencies tell me that nothing is 100 percent effective when it comes to that.”


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