Crime & Safety

Police: Yorktown IBM Employee Dies After Bear Mountain Bridge Jump

New York State Police have identified the person as Chatschik Bisdikian, 52, of Chappaqua.

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. 

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

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

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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."

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

“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.”

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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