KALAMAZOO, Mich. — A public safety officer in Michigan made a dramatic, life-saving catch last week.
Officer Michael Arnett, with the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, made the sure-handed catch on May 15, according to a social media post by the department.
The department received a call at about 4:16 p.m. ET regarding a fire at a two-story residence divided into three living units. Dispatchers were told that a porch on the second floor was on fire and that a woman and her infant were trapped.
The woman was on the phone to dispatchers, but they lost contact with her, WXMI reported.
Moments later, an officer spotted the woman through an upstairs window of the residence and told her to kick out the window screen and drop the baby to him, according to the television station.
“Hey, throw me your kid. Kick out the screen,” Arnett can be heard in body camera footage.
Arnett reached the window and safely caught the infant, the department said. The officer then handed the baby off to another officer and put a ladder under the window to get the woman safely out of the burning building, WMXI reported.
Both the woman and her child were transported to an area hospital for precautionary evaluations, the department said. Neither sustained injuries.
The residents from the apartment’s two lower-level units were able to evacuate safely and were not injured.
“I got a baby of my own. So I knew the first thing I would do was get all the occupants out of the house,” Arnett, who has been an officer for four years, told WXMI. “Property can be replaced. Obviously lives can’t.
“It was a little adrenaline rush,” Arnett said of the rescue. “Kind of a one-shot opportunity there.”