Police officers and bystanders are being praised for jumping into action when a vehicle slammed into a mother holding her baby while they crossed a street.
“It’s honestly a miracle that both of them survived — very strong mom and an even stronger little infant,” Officer Rocco Fusco told ABC News.
Video footage showed the 36-year-old woman and her eight-month-old baby walking across a street on Friday in Yonkers, New York, when the car raced around the corner, hitting other vehicles, and crashed into them.
The car then drove into the front of a barbershop, dragging the mom and her baby with it.
Fusco and Officer Paul Samoyedny were eating breakfast next door when the incident occurred.
The Yonkers Police Department shared the video of the crash that also included the officers’ bodycam footage. Samoyedny’s showed the moment the two officers and the bystanders grabbed hold of the car in an attempt to lift it.
“We got a baby under the vehicle,” he said before getting on the ground near the car:
“I got it! I got the baby,” he exclaimed, then lifted the infant from the debris and held her to him.
The woman suffered a compound fracture to her leg and the baby suffered a fractured skull. However, the two are expected to recover.
According to police, the driver was David Poncurack, 43, who was unlicensed. Poncurack was arrested and later charged with driving while intoxicated.
During a recent interview with CNN, Samoyedny said he was just glad to help.
“As a father of four kids, it really intensified the situation for me when I saw the baby under there and the arms moving and not able to move any other direction away from the car,” he explained:
CNN's Brianna Keilar interviewed Yonkers Police Officers Samoyedny and Fusco this morning in regards to their heroic actions!CNN The City of Yonkers #yonkerspd
Posted by Yonkers Police Department on Monday, July 26, 2021
Fusco said the bystanders did not hesitate to jump in and assist in the rescue.
“Everybody there did something to help,” he noted, adding, “It was unbelievable.”
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