A Florida deputy helped rescue a mother and her five children from her vehicle after they were involved in a crash on a highway, dramatic body camera footage shows.
Hillsborough County Sergeant Donnie Rizer spotted a white vehicle overturned on its side surrounded by bystanders around 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the sheriff’s office said.
The vehicle had been t-boned by another car on US Hwy. 301 as it turned onto I-75, the sheriff’s office told WFLA.
Rizer pulled over as a group of good Samaritans were extracting the kids from the car and “swiftly took charge,” police said. The mother and four of her children had been pulled from the vehicle, but one still remained inside.
He saw a “to small fingers” through the sunroof, and “risking his own safety, removed his vest and equipment belt and crawled into the vehicle, rescuing the last child and ensuring their safety,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Rizer’s bodycam footage was released by police on Thursday. In the clip, you can hear a child inside the wrecked vehicle screaming as the group and the deputy try to get them out.
“I can’t unbuckle it!” the little girl screams through tears at the officer, pulling on her seatbelt which strapped her into a carseat.
“Ok, we’re gonna come get you,” he responds calmly as he begins moving debris around from inside the car, video shows. “It’s okay baby,” he says.
He reaches in with one hand and unclips her seatbelt, and she unwraps it from her leg, still sobbing. He grabs her and hands her to the mother behind him.
The sheriff’s office said he then went back inside of the vehicle to grab a pacifier for one of the “distressed children.”
Video later shows EMTs arriving at the scene after Rizer confirms all the children had been accounted for.
All of the family members were taken to the hospital as a precaution, officials told WFLA.
