Heroic bystanders rescue girl after father dies jumping in front of subway train
Cellphone video captured a harrowing rescue on Monday, showing bystanders who scrambled to rescue a young girl when her father jumped in front of a moving train while holding her in his arms.
The video showed commuters as they jumped into action on Monday morning when a 45-year-old man jumped to his death from a subway platform in the Bronx while holding his daughter.
The 5-year-old girl miraculously landed in a safe space below the train, allowing her to survive the frightening incident. She was crying and calling for her father, who was pronounced dead on the scene.
Video from the scene showed bystanders panicking as they worked to get the girl back on the the subway platform. At least two good Samaritans crawled down on to the tracks to pull the young child out from beneath the train.
The child, dressed in a blue jacket and a pink backpack, emerged from tracks with some cuts to her face, but she managed to walk away without assistance.
She apparently survived by lodging herself in between the front wheels of the train, one witness said.
"By the sake of God, the ended up under the train, underneath between the wheels. This is how she was able to survive," one witness told New York ABC station WABC.
Other witnesses said her father was calmly speaking on the phone right before the fatal jump.
"I heard him telling the wife that, 'You look out for the other two kids, I'm gonna take her to school,' and then he said, 'I love you,'" witness Pamela Ivy told WABC.
The child was taken to a nearby hospital where she was treated for minor injuries. Niurka Caraballo, who identified herself as the child's mother, said she was preparing to bring her home later on Monday.
"Please respect my pain. Thank you for being there, thank you for having my back," Caraballo told WABC in Spanish. "Thank you to the 52nd precinct; I'm home now and they're still reaching out to make sure that I made it home OK, that I eat, that my daughter eats. Thank you, but please respect my pain.
"The child is in perfect condition, thank you to God and the angels who took care of her. Everything is fine, except the absence of my husband. Thank you."
