What was a normal Sunday turned into a nightmare for one mom, when a shopping cart carrying her baby rolled out of a store parking lot, and headed straight for traffic. But amazingly, a police officer managed to help stop traffic, and save the little boy.
Spooner officer Adam Brunclik just happened to be at the right place at the right time. And what he did to save that child's life was all caught on camera.
"You just kind of go into flight or fight mode, and just think, you have to get that kid," says Officer Adam Brunclik.
Call it heroic, a miracle, or fate. Spooner police officer Adam Brunclik was in the right place at the right time on November 11th.
"It was a Sunday morning, I was the only person out on patrol at the time," Officer Brunclik says.
The three-year veteran officer noticed something unusual.
"I was traveling southbound on Roundhouse Road just approaching Highway 70. Crested the hill, and I just saw a shopping cart come rolling out of the Dollar General parking lot," Brunclik says.
He quickly realized something was horribly wrong.
"Right here is where I kind of started to see the cart moving and then I realized there was a child right about here," Brunclik says, pointing to the dash cam video of the incident. "He was wearing a bright yellow jacket, he was sitting in the little seat in the front."
A woman had been placing her other child in her car, when her shopping cart carrying her young infant son started to roll away from her, down the driveway, and right into traffic, along a busy stretch of Highway 70.
"My immediate reaction was he was traveling fast and so I knew there wasn't an option to stop the cart, but I had to do something to try to stop traffic because it was headed directly towards a busy highway so I just activated my emergency lights and drove the squad on the highway in hopes of trying to stop traffic, it was my only option at that point," Officer Brunclik says.
He quickly ran after the cart, and grabbed the little boy, who amazingly, was uninjured.
"The mother met me on the other side of the hill, she was running down the hill herself pretty fast. She was just hysterical," Officer Brunclik.
"It's not often that officers have something like that happen right in front of them, but he was in the right place at the right time. He still had to take action, quick action to possibly save that child's life," says Spooner Police Chief Robert Andrea.
The part-time police officer received a commendation from the Spooner Police Department.
"To take the squad car down there with the lights on, not knowing what's coming for traffic and get in front of the child, he could have put himself in danger," Chief Andrea says.
But he says he just did what anyone would have done.
"I believe I did the same thing any citizen or police officer would do when they saw a child in need of help. I just reacted I guess like any citizen, I just had the aid of emergency lights and was in the right place," says Officer Brunclik.
And even though he doesn't have any kids of his own, he does think of his nieces and nephews.
"You want to go home and hug them a little bit tighter after an incident like that," Officer Brunclik says.
Officer Brunclik doesn't even know the name of baby he saved, because he says he gave him back to his mother, he had to run off to another call immediately after. |