A retired New York Police Department officer is being hailed as a hero after rescuing a woman and her five-month-old baby from the East River in Queens on Oct. 26.
According to CBS New York, retired Officer Paul Pinsdorf was volunteering at a Halloween event at Hermon A. MacNeil Park in the College Point neighborhood when he heard screams and saw a woman walking into the river with her baby.
“She was crying, holding it, going deeper and deeper in the water,” Pinsdorf told the outlet. “She was saying incoherent things, so I couldn’t really make out what she was saying.”
Pinsdorf said the woman appeared unwilling to return to shore, and that the baby was nearly submerged by the time he reached them.
According to The New York Post, the 30-year-old woman — later identified as Fei Fei Gao of Queens — waded chest-deep into the water while holding her child. Both were pulled out safely and taken to nearby hospitals. The woman was transported to North Shore University Hospital for treatment, while the infant was brought to New York Presbyterian.
Police confirmed that Gao was arrested after being examined and charged with attempted murder and endangering the welfare of a child.
“If Paul didn’t get here when he did, I don’t know what would have been the outcome,” retired NYPD Officer Kevin O’Donnell told CBS New York. O’Donnell, who once led the Community Affairs Office at the NYPD’s 109th Precinct in Queens, was also at the park at the time of the rescue.
Another retired officer, Brock Weiner, described the tense moment: “The woman was stressing over something. She was fighting him, but she wouldn’t let go of the baby.”
Thanks to Pinsdorf’s quick response, both the mother and baby survived the harrowing incident.
