A retired New York Police Department officer, Paul Pinsdorf, heroically rescued a mother and her baby from the East River in Queens on Oct. 26.
According to CBS New York, Pinsdorf was volunteering at a Halloween event at Hermon A. MacNeil Park in the College Point neighborhood when he heard screams. He then saw a woman walking into the river with her infant in her arms.
“She was crying, holding it, going deeper and deeper in the water,” Pinsdorf said. “She’s saying incoherent things, so I couldn’t really make out,” he recalled, describing the frightening scene.
Pinsdorf added that the woman “did not want to come back” and that the baby was nearly submerged when he went into the water to pull them both out.
According to The New York Post, the 30-year-old woman had waded chest-deep into the river with her five-month-old baby. Emergency services transported her to North Shore University Hospital for treatment, while the baby was taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital, officials confirmed.
Authorities later identified the woman as Fei Fei Gao, 30, of Queens. She was charged with attempted murder and endangering the welfare of a child after being examined at the hospital, according to confirmations from the NYPD and CBS New York.
“If Paul didn’t get there when he did, I don’t know what the outcome would have been,” said retired Officer Kevin O’Donnell, who was also present at the park that day. O’Donnell previously led the Community Affairs Office at the NYPD’s 109th Precinct in Queens, The New York Post reported.
Another retired officer, Brock Weiner, told CBS New York that the woman appeared to be in distress. “She was fighting him, but she wouldn’t let go of the baby,” he said.
Thanks to Pinsdorf’s quick response, both the woman and her infant survived the ordeal.
