Officer Carlos Carmo saved a group of unaware teenagers from being struck by an out of control SUV with quick thinking and adrenaline-fueled strength.
On the corner of Boston Avenue and Bond Street in the city of Bridgeport, a black SUV slid out of park without apparent cause, picking up speed as it carried two terrified passengers directly toward a group of unwary students. It was about 2:30 p.m. on December 16, and the Harding High School students were not looking for an imminent threat to their life.
“They all had headphones on and I was screaming at them,” Carmo remembered in an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America. “They basically didn’t hear me. I don’t even think they knew what was going on until it was over.” Luckily, he was paying attention. Their guardian angel in blue rushed into the path of the vehicle, grabbing its door frame and somehow pulling it to a stop. The incident was captured on video.
“My adrenaline basically kicked in at that point. I used my strength while dragging my feet along the ground … before the SUV could collide with anyone or anything,” Carmo said. “The people in the car as I was holding it and trying to stop it … were freaking out a little bit, they were screaming.”
No one but Carmo himself was injured, and not seriously. Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim plans to honor the heroic officer’s “bravery, selflessness, and quick thinking” in an “emergency situation that could have been tragic had he not intervened.”
“We go through a lot of scenarios, but that’s not a scenario they teach us in the academy,” Carmo said, but remained humble. “That’s just one of those things where your instinct kicks in, and you basically do what you got to do to keep these kids safe.”