Times Square Shooting: Hero Officer Alyssa Vogel Speaks About Rescuing 4-Year-Old Gunshot Victim

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Several stories of bravery are coming out after the Times Square shooting this weekend.

An NYPD officer is being called a hero after video, viewed by millions, showed her rushing the child who was shot to safety.

CBS2’s Natalie Duddridge spoke to her Monday morning in Times Square.

The officer herself is a new mother. She has a 6-month-old son, and those motherly instincts and police training just kicked in. All she wanted to do in that moment is make sure the little girl was OK, Duddridge reported.

“I was just looking at her, saying if this was my kid, I would be running her myself to the hospital, or an ambulance,” Officer Alyssa Vogel said.

So that’s exactly what she did, moments after a 4-year-old girl was one of three innocent bystanders shot in Times Square. Video shows Vogel running with the child in her arms.

“I just picked her up, looked for the ambulance my partner had said. There was one down the block, so I just ran,” Vogel said.

Vogel, who works in the Midtown North precinct, was nearby when the shots rang out Saturday around 5 p.m., hitting the youngster, who was going to a toy store with her mom, dad and aunt.

Another officer, already on the scene, called out to Vogel that he needed a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.

“I had one on my gun belt, so I pulled it out, started putting it on her, tightening it,” Vogel said. “Obviously she’s a child, We didn’t know if it was going to be tight enough to work.”

It did, and Officer Vogel says while the girl’s parents were in shock, she didn’t make a sound.

“She was amazing. I can’t believe that a little girl her age who had just been shot was so calm,” Vogel said. “When I was with the mother, I was trying to calm her down, because obviously she was in a state. It was starting to settle in what was happening. Just trying to get her to not have a panic attack, let her know it’s OK, your daughter’s OK.”

Now, Vogel is being hailed a hero, but she says it’s a team effort.

“It’s kind of funny because, you know, to me and and every other cop on scene, we’re just doing our job,” Vogel said.

Vogel just happened to be doing her job on Mother’s Day, and had left her 6-month-old son with his grandmother.

“I was FaceTimeing my mother and my son before the job came over. Right after, when everything calmed down, I made sure to call my mom and look at my son again, just to make sure everything was OK,” Vogel said.

She says she’ll always have a connection with the little girl and her family, and will continue to stay in touch with the them. The last she heard, the child had surgery and was stable.

from CBS New York https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2021/05/10/times-square-shooting-hero-officer-alyssa-vogel/
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