In Virginia, a police officer is being hailed as a real-life superhero after single-handedly lifting an overturned car off a woman to save her life.
The car wrecked on May 7 in Gloucester County, and thankfully, Deputy John Holt was quick to respond to the call. In a video of the rescue, the police officer can be heard telling dispatchers that the vehicle had flipped upside down while he was arriving at the scene.
He then jumps out of his patrol car and rushes over to the vehicle while someone at the scene calls for help. Deputy Holt asks if his mother was underneath the car.
Credit: Gloucester County Sheriff’s Office
“Yes, she can’t breathe! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!” the young boy says while crouched inside the overturned car near his mother.
Deputy Holt updates the dispatchers and says that the woman’s head is pinned underneath the sunroof.
The police officer tells another child to exit the car, and the screen turns black as his body camera is pressed up against the vehicle. Deputy Holt can be heard straining and groaning as he attempts to lift the car.
Thankfully, the woman was able to remove her head from beneath the overturned vehicle, according to the audio. It’s unknown what injuries she had incurred and her condition after the rescue.
The heart-stopping body camera footage has since gone viral after the sheriff’s office shared it on Facebook.
“Seeing the trauma her child was witnessing, Deputy J. Holt went into overdrive,” the sheriff’s office wrote in the video’s caption.
“Through sheer will and determination due to fearing the female may succumb to her circumstance in front of her panic-stricken child, 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.”
As it turns out, this isn’t the first time that Deputy Holt has been recognized for his heroic efforts.
Last year March, he pulled a woman and a young girl from a burning home. He later discovered that they both had physical disabilities that prevented them from escaping on their own.
While on patrol, Deputy Holt responded to assist with the structure fire. As he arrived, he heard a female yelling that there were still people inside the home.
Without hesitation, the police officer crawled inside the smoke-filled structure and found the woman. He got her out and reentered the house to search for more victims.
As the fire grew, he found the girl and grabbed her by the waist, dragging her out the front door and into safety.
But Deputy Holt wasn’t done.
Credit: Gloucester County Sheriff’s office
“Believing that an infant was still unaccounted for, Dep. J. Holt, again without regard for his wellbeing, entered the house now fully engulfed by the fire for a third time to search for the baby,” officials said.
He was unable to find the baby and left the home to gather more information about where he may have been. Then, he reentered the burning residence a fourth time to search for the infant once again.
It was later discovered that the baby had been safely removed from the home before his arrival.
Deputy Holt was given the local and regional Top Cop Awards from the Greater Hampton Roads Regional Crime Line on February 2, 2021, for his efforts in saving the lives of two individuals from a burning house.
Thank you, Deputy John Holt, for your commitment to public safety and your service to the community. You are indeed a hero!
Here is the body camera footage from 13News Now showing Deputy Holt in action.