When officers Willie Adams and Marcus Todd arrived at a fiery crash scene Sunday in northwest Atlanta, their first thoughts were not of the steadily growing flames or risk of explosion.
Their attention was focused on the man slumped over in the driver’s seat, unaware that his life was in immediate danger.
“All I was thinking was this is somebody’s brother,” Adams said Thursday from outside the Atlanta Police Department’s Zone 5 precinct. “This is somebody’s father. This is somebody’s son. This is somebody’s uncle. I had to get in there and save him.”
The daring rescue was captured on the officers’ body cameras, and footage was released earlier this week. On Thursday, Adams and Todd described the events for the first time in their own words, with Adams calling it a “day we will never forget.”
Credit: WSBTV Videos
Adams believes the man had a medical emergency while driving west on North Avenue through the Bankhead neighborhood. He hit a curb, crossed several lanes of traffic and went airborne before crashing through two nearby houses, one of which was occupied, Adams said. The car finally stopped when it crashed into a tree and burst into flames.
No one but the driver was injured. He was unconscious and his leg was pinned by a crushed engine compartment when Adams and Todd pulled up about 1:36 a.m. at the intersection of North Avenue and Oliver Street.
The next 2½ minutes were captured on the officers’ body camera.
“As soon as you put that patrol car in park, there’s no time to think,” Adams said. “There’s no stopping. There’s no pausing. You got to get in there and get him out.”
Officers quickly realized the crumpled door to the red hatchback was missing its handle, and there was no way to get the man out except through the window. With his leg stuck under the steering wheel, the officers struggled to pull him out by his arms.
Wary of the growing flames, Adams broke out a back window and they continued pulling at him, begging him to come to and help himself. With one final heave, the man was freed just as fire crews and EMS arrived at the scene.
Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
Credit: JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM
“It was a scary situation,” Adams said. “After all that, we was thinking what (would have) happened if the vehicle would have blown up? We always got to act under pressure.”
The police department commended their actions in a Facebook post, calling them “the humble, yet heroic moments in an officer’s day.” Todd hoped the rescue would inspire trust in police officers.
“At the end of the day we’re not all the same,” he said. “You have good apples and you have bad apples, and we’re definitely two of the good ones. Anytime you call, we’re coming.”
