Video Shows Hero Cop Saving Man in Wheelchair Stuck on Train Tracks

A Lodi city police officer saved a 66-year-old wheelchair-using man from the tracks of a speeding freight train on Wednesday morning, and the incident was captured on video. Though the train still injured the man’s legs, he is now in critical but stable condition at a local hospital.

Officer Erika Urrea, a 14-year veteran in the police department of Lodi, a city 35 miles south of Sacramento, saw the man around 8:44 a.m. on Wednesday morning. His wheelchair had gotten stuck on the train’s rails, leaving him immobile as the arms of the train signal lowered to block traffic.

Bodycam footage shows Urrea exiting her vehicle and running towards the man, at first trying to push his wheelchair off the tracks.

“Can you get up?” she asked the man.

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As the train’s horn blared repeatedly, growing closer by the second, Urrea urgently said, “Get up, get up, get up, get up, get up!” While pulling the man from the chair by the arm, she dragged his body and cane as the large train swept over his lower legs.

The man laid moaning near the tracks as Urrea tumbled backwards onto the pavement. She then rose to her feet, calling 911 for an ambulance as the man laid moaning, his legs injured by the train.

“A northbound train was traveling pretty fast, and she rushed over to get him unstuck,” said Sargeant Steve Maynard, who was with Urrea at the time of the accident. “She only had a few seconds.”

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Video of the incident has since been viewed nearly 60,000 times since it was published on Twitter. Thus far, Urrea has publicly declined comment, but the Lodi Police Department praised for her heroic actions.

“Officer Urrea risked her own life to save another, and her actions prevented a tragedy today,” the department said in a statement. “We are extremely proud of Officer Urrea and her heroism.”

Newsweek contacted the Lodi Police Department for comment.

Many Twitter commenters used Urrea’s actions to try and attack the “Defund the Police” movement which seeks to reallocate police budgets towards community efforts such as affordable housing, drug treatment programs and mental health services to try so that the community can rely less on police to address non-violent issues of social unrest.

According to Lodi News, Urrea once tried to rescue an elderly man who collided with the rear of a bus while riding his bicycle on August 4. While waiting for the ambulance, Urrea performed CPR on the 62-year-old man. Eventually, paramedics arrived and continued the CPR.