After watching a preteen boy run along a highway, stop to climb a guard rail and then jump off an overpass around 30 feet, Officer Jessie Ferreira Cavallo knew she had to put her own life on the line to save his.
The officer from Hastings-On-Hudson Police Department in Westchester County, New York, witnessed the incident as she was driving to work on the Sawmill River Parkway on Friday afternoon, according to local outletThe Journal News.
“Everything happened so fast and I think my adrenaline was pumping so high,” Ferreira Cavallo toldThe Journal News. “I wasn’t thinking too much… I just knew, when I looked down and saw him… he looked dead. I couldn’t see anything other than blood. I thought to myself, ‘He needs help. I need to help him.’ ”
“[There was] a lot of blood all over his body and face,” Ferreira told News 12.
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After the fall, the boy could open his eyes partly, but was unresponsive when Ferreira Cavallo tried to speak to him. An ambulance rushed him to a local hospital, where he’s being treated for a broken arm, broken nose, and leg injuries,according toThe Journal News. The boy, 12, is expected to survive, the outlet said.
Ferreira Cavallo said the magnitude of her actions didn’t truly sink in until a day after the incident.
“I didn’t realize how high it was. It seemed doable,” she toldThe Journal News. “I thought I jumped over a brick wall, or a cement barrier. It was so fast. It was more like tunnel vision. I saw the boy and I needed to get to him. I didn’t see anything else.”
She added to News 12, “I think I was here at that time for a reason. I don’t know if it was God’s plan.”
PEOPLE was not immediately able to speak to Ferreira Cavallo despite multiple attempts. The Westchester County Police Department also did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
On Sunday, Ferreira Cavallo tried to visit the boy at the hospital, according toThe Journal News,to find out how he was recovering.
“I don’t know his name or anything,” she toldThe Journal News. “I just hope that he’s doing well. I just want to give him a hug.”
According toUSA Today, the unnamed boy, a Bronx native, is a student at the Andrus School, which serves children who are vulnerable, living with special needs or have severe emotional and behavioral struggles. The Andrus campus is less than two miles from the overpass where he jumped,USA Todaysaid. Andrus School did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
source: people.com
