Community Corner

WATCH: NYPD Officer From West Islip Saves 4-Year-Old In Shooting

The officer was hailed a hero after saving the girl who was injured in a shooting in Times Square last week.

In the bodycam footage released by the NYPD, officer Alyssa Vogel can be seen rushing through the crowd and reach the little girl, who was rushed to the hospital and made a full recovery.
In the bodycam footage released by the NYPD, officer Alyssa Vogel can be seen rushing through the crowd and reach the little girl, who was rushed to the hospital and made a full recovery. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

WEST ISLIP, NY — An NYPD officer from West Islip is credited with saving the life of a 4-year-old girl who was shot in Times Square last week.

In addition to the girl, two women were shot on West 44th and Seventh Avenue after a dispute between several men turned violent, according to the NYPD

In the bodycam footage released by the NYPD, officer Alyssa Vogel can be seen rushing through the crowd and reach the little girl.

Find out what's happening in West Islipfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

She then quickly applied a tourniquet to the girl's leg and picked her up and rushed her to safety. The girl went on to get surgery at Bellevue Hospital and made a full recovery.

Vogel recalled that once she reached the ambulance, she also helped to reassure the mother who was in a "panic."

Find out what's happening in West Islipfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

"I was just trying to calm her down, trying to get her to breathe with me so she wouldn't have any panic attacks," she told News12. "I was just telling her we're on the way to the hospital, your daughter is going to be OK."

The girl, however, managed to stay calm.

"She was amazing. I cannot believe that a little girl her age who had just been shot was so calm," Vogel told CBS2. "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."

Last Wednesday, 31-year-old Farrakhan Muhammad was arrested in Florida in connection to the shooting.

Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

More from West Islip