New body camera video shows an officer rushing to save people trapped in a burning car after a crash on Thursday in Lauderhill.
Officer Jason Reyes ran toward the car engulfed in flames in the 1400 block of Northwest 31st Avenue, after a blue Mercedes slammed into a silver Chevy sedan trying to make a left turn at around 4:30 a.m.
A witness can be seen trying to put out the flames with a fire extinguisher as Reyes arrives, assesses the situation and takes control.
“Anybody else in there? Is there anybody else inside?” he asks.
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“Walking up to it, you’re not knowing if anybody’s there to begin with so, there’s a fire, there’s a risk that you might get burned in the mix, but you have to check to see if there’s somebody inside that car,” he told NBC6 on Friday. “You have to kind of put yourself aside and, you know, act.”
Video shows how he remains calm and uses the witness’ extinguisher until firefighters arrive. Then he helps firefighters by smashing a car window with his baton to rescue a survivor.
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“She was scrunched up almost underneath the steering wheel, so getting her out–I was very surprised when she was breathing,” he said. “There was a little bit of relief, and shortly after that, the car was engulfed. So it was a tight, tight timeline.”
Witnesses said the scene was chaos.
"It sounded like a bomb, like boom! And then it blacked out the store lights, went out and everything," one witness said.
Four people were taken to the hospital. The driver of the Chevy, 50-year-old Daryl Walker, did not survive, authorities said.
One victim has been released from the hospital. The other two are stable.
