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Everyday Heroes: Recruits help woman whose son was locked in the car
Three Atlanta police recruits sprung into action after a woman's son became locked in a hot car.
ATLANTA - Here at FOX 5, we are highlighting people who are doing something good in their community. It’s good news we’re excited to feature each week!
Today we’re showing you how a group of guys came to a desperate woman’s need, and it just so happened they had been preparing for a moment like this for weeks.
At first glance you would say they look the part to help someone in desperate need, but these Atlanta Police Training Academy recruits in training aren’t quite official yet.
"We’re in week 19 here in the police academy," said recruit Kelton Hill.
Meet John De Forest, Kelton Hill and Daniel Boursiquot. After a day of training in the academy, they decided to grab a bite to eat here at FOX Brothers BBQ.
"Then out of nowhere we saw frantic people around the parking lot. Kelton here approached the lady and asked is everything alright? She’s like ‘no my son is locked in the vehicle’, says recruit Boursiquot.
Surveillance captured the panic when the woman says her special needs son was locked inside her car. The temperature inside growing on this 90+ degree day after she tried and failed to get it unlocked.
"When we checked in the vehicle he wasn’t moving. He was like in a fetal position. She told us he had a respirator machine and the vehicle was off so {the respirator] wasn’t on, says Boursiquot.
So they tried shaking the car to get him to react - but he wasn’t moving.
"Once we saw he was in a fetal position I tried to check for his chest to see if his chest was rising. I didn’t see his chest rise," says recruit Hill.
"We told them we have a tool designed to break windows of a vehicle. That’s when we retrieved the tool. The ASP baton," say De Forest.
They used the ASP baton to break the window and unlocked the door to free the child.
"He was still breathing. Shallow breath, not very responsive though," says De Forest. "He was kind of shaky, Hill adds.
In all they believe it took three to five minutes to bring this to a happy ending.
For a set of recruits who aren’t even official yet. Thankfully they were prepared enough when faced with this real-life scenario.
"Every minute felt like an hour, say Boursiquot. "So our main concern was to get the child out of the vehicle to see if he was responsive. So as soon as the door opened we seen him moving a little bit. So we were all calm after that."
The recruits were recognized by their superiors in their class, but they say if any one of their fellow recruits was faced with the same dilemma they would have jumped into action without hesitation too.
Do you know someone we could highlight as an Everyday Hero? Then we want to hear from YOU!! Send an email to Christine.sperow@fox.com, or www.twitter.com/ChristineonTV or facebook.com/ChristineSperowFOX5.