A suicidal 16-year-old girl has a second chance at life, thanks to a trio of quick-acting cops who pulled her from Manhattan’s Harlem River moments after she plunged in.
The unidentified teen was spotted along some rocks off the shore of the river near E. 142nd St. and the Harlem River Drive on Monday around 1 p.m.
When cops who responded to a call about the girl climbed over a gate and tried to approach her, she left her perch and plunged into the water, a decision the cops said she quickly regretted.
“She’s in the water, she’s screaming for help, she’s saying that she can’t swim,” said Officer Wilmer Guerrero, 32, who went into the water after her.
Before plunging in, he shed his jacket, bulletproof vest and gun belt.
“So now all the thoughts are racing through my head that she could possibly drown, the river could take her farther and farther or she could have, like, a panic attack,” he recalled. “And so it was quick thinking. I jumped in, and I was able to get to her in time. And she was probably like 20 to 30 feet out in the river when I got to her.”
NYPD
NYPD Officer Wilmer Guerrero jumps into the Harlem River near East 142nd St. in Manhattan to rescue a 16-year-old girl on Monday. (NYPD)
Officers Shuaibul Amine, 27, and Ankit Gupta, 27, who had also hopped the gate, helped pull the girl to the shore after Guerrero got her out of the water.
“When she jumped in the water, she was screaming, ‘Help, help!’” Amine said. “I grabbed the female’s hand and we just pulled her up to the edge. Thank God that we were in the right place at the right time to help her out. I hope that, from now on, she she gets all the help she needs going through all the obstacles she has, and wish her good luck”
Gupta agreed.
“I wish her all the best,” Gupta said. “I hope she gets to realize what she’s going through, like she’s not alone. You know that we’re all there to help her out.”
Guerrero said his adrenaline compensated for the water temperature.
“It really didn’t feel that cold at the beginning,” he said. “But after I got out, I could feel how cold it really was.”
Barry Williams/ New York Daily News
NYPD officers (L-R) Shuaibul Amine, Wilmer Guerrero and Ankit Gupta pose for a photo Thursday in Harlem River Park near W. 142nd St., where they saved a teenage girl from drowning on Monday. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
Guerrero said they didn’t get a chance to talk with the girl.
“The Emergency Service Unit and EMS arrived on the scene,” he said. “So they wanted us to get warmed up. So I went in the truck and got warm.”
Guerrero said he has been thinking about the girl since the rescue.
“I’m glad that it went the way it did,” he said. “She got a second chance in life, and I hope she get all the help she needs and moves on from the situation and is able to live her life from now on.”
