MANHATTAN, N.Y. (WPIX) — An NYPD officer scooped up a 4-year-old girl who’d been shot in Times Square and ran her to safety.
The Brooklyn girl was one of three bystanders shot on Saturday. While the NYPD praises officer Alyssa Vogel, they’ve continued their search for the gunman, identified by law enforcement sources as Farrakhan Muhammad.
Vogel, who was a teacher before she joined the NYPD, was in the area when shots rang out around 5 p.m. Saturday.
The 4-year-old girl was in Times Square shopping with her family, purchasing toys. She was shot in the leg.
“Once I heard ‘baby,’ I sprinted,” Vogel said. “I was just treating her as if she were my own child. I really just wanted to get her to the hospital as soon as possible.”
Vogel applied a tourniquet to the girl’s leg.
“She was screaming; It was very painful,” Vogel said. “It’s heartbreaking hearing her scream like that, but we had to help her.”
Vogel said the girl’s parents were very emotional, while the girl, whom Vogel called “amazing” and a “rock star,” was calm aside from the application of the tourniquet.
“I definitely went home and hugged my son a little tighter that night,” she said.
Two other people were also wounded in the Saturday shooting. A Rhode Island woman, in town to see the Statue of Liberty, was also shot in the leg, and a New Jersey woman was shot in the foot, officials said.
