Child cries for ‘mommy’ as deputy lifts flipped car off Virginia driver, video shows
A Virginia sheriff’s deputy single handedly lifted a flipped car off a driver’s head, and the moment was caught in a gut-wrenching body cam video released Tuesday by Gloucester County Sheriff’s Office.
The chaotic recording shows Deputy J. Holt arrived to find a car upside down on the side of the road, and the driver lying “underneath the vehicle with her head pinned by the sunroof,” the department wrote on Facebook.
Holt approaches to see one person wandering in shock outside the vehicle and a child still inside, crying and screaming “mommy, mommy.”
“She can’t breathe, she can’t breathe,” the child yells at Holt. “Help me!”
In the seconds that follow, Holt gets the child out of the car and the image goes black as he presses his chest against the side of the vehicle and begins to lift it.
Holt is heard grunting and the minute-long video ends with him asking: “Can you slide any, ma’am? Is your head clear?”
The department called his handling of the crash a “tremendous act.”
“Through sheer will and determination, due to fearing the female may succumb to her circumstance ... Deputy J. Holt took quick action and was able to physically lift the vehicle up enough for the driver to maneuver her head out to safety,” department officials said.
The crash happened May 7 in Gloucester County, which is near the coast, north of Newport News. The name of the driver and her condition was not released.
It’s the second time in 15 months Holt is credited with saving someone’s life, the department said.
On March 24, 2020, he pulled a woman from a burning home, then returned “to grab (a) juvenile victim by her waist and drag her out the front door,” officials said. Holt then went back inside to look for an infant, only to later learn the child had already been carried to safety, officials said.
“The victims suffered second/third-degree burns over 50% of their bodies,” the department wrote on Facebook at the time. “The two ... suffered from physical disabilities which prevented them from exiting the house fire on their own. Without his ‘never give up’ mentality, the outcome would have been much more devastating.”
In February, Holt was given “local and regional Top Cop Awards ... for his commitment to public safety,” officials said.
