A quick-thinking New York City bus driver is being praised as a local hero after his quick thinking moves saved a girl - he caught a 7 year-old girl who fell out of a third-floor window in Brooklyn.
Stephen St. Bernard, an MTA bus driver of 10 years, was returning home to Coney Island from his job at about 2 p.m. on Tuesday when he heard screams coming from a building courtyard. He rushed toward the commotion and saw a girl standing on top of a third-floor window air conditioning unit. He immediately ran underneath the window.
"Please let me catch her, please let me catch her," Stephen St. Bernard, 52, recalled thinking, according to WCBS-TV. "That's all I could say. Let me catch the little baby."
"I think about my daughter, and you know, she's a little kid," he said.
In the minute long video, Mr St Bernard is seen positioning himself beneath the window, trying to find the right spot in case she fell.
Witnesses at the scene said she started dancing on top of the unit before falling. "She was shocked, because she moaned a little bit," St. Bernard later said.
The girl was transported to Coney Island Hospital, but suffered no major injuries. St. Bernard suffered a torn tendon in his hand.
Saleema McCree, the girl's mother, blamed the incident on a faulty air conditioning unit. Both the NYPD and the Housing Department investigated the issue to make sure the girl was not being neglected and said no charges will be pressed against the mother.
Watch the vdeo of the Bus driver catching the 7-year old girl below:
