NYPD Officers Leap Into Freezing Harlem River To Save Teen

Three NYPD officers pulled a teenage girl from the frigid Harlem River on Tuesday in a gripping rescue captured on body camera — with one officer saying afterward, “Nothing else mattered but just getting her out of the water,” the New York Post reported Thursday.

Officers Ankit Gupta, Wilmer Guerrero and Shuaibul Amine, all from Uptown Manhattan, were praised Thursday for their swift response after the teen jumped into the icy river only to immediately panic as the cold set in.

“Somebody needed help, and this is what we signed up for, and we’re here to help, and that’s what we did,” Guerrero said.

Bodycam footage shows Guerrero stripping off his jacket and most of his gear before diving into the water, while Gupta and Amine positioned themselves to pull both of them back to shore near 142nd Street around 2 p.m.

“It was definitely a cold plunge, freezing. But at that moment, nothing else mattered but just getting her out of the water,” Guerrero recalled at the scene Thursday with Gupta and Amine. “I just grabbed her by her sweater and her shoulder, and I was just swimming along with her, and then I was just pushing her forward.”

He said the teen was “in such a panic frenzy” that steady encouragement was the only way to keep her calm as he guided her toward help.

The ordeal began when authorities were alerted that a girl was in distress and attempting to jump off the Harlem River Drive. As officers rushed toward her, “she just jumped into the water, with all her clothes on,” Gupta said.

The teen immediately began to scream, “help me, help me, please!” prompting Guerrero to prepare to jump as another officer asked him, “Can you swim? Can you swim?”

Guerrero reached the girl — roughly 20 feet out — within moments and brought her back toward land, where Gupta and Amine, who also shed some gear in case he needed to go in, hoisted them both to safety.

The Emergency Service Unit wrapped the girl in blankets and she was taken to a hospital conscious and alert.

“And hopefully we gave this girl a second chance, because obviously this thing could have gone a whole different way,” Guerrero said.

All three officers, each with under four years on the force, work at the 32nd Precinct. The rescue marked their first water save and a defining early moment in their careers.

“I’m just glad that we were all there as a group, that it was a group effort that gave her a second chance,” Gupta said, as Amine added, “It’s great when you save somebody. That’s what we signed up for in this job, right?”