Body Cam Footage Shows Police Sergeant Rescuing Child from Fire

Denniro/iStock/Thinkstock(GRIFFIN, Ga.) — A Georgia police officer’s body camera showed his heroic rescue of a 3-year-old boy in a burning house.

Told by the home’s occupant that her young grandchild was inside the house on March 16, Sgt. Joe Hudson, a 14-year veteran of the Griffin Police Department, ran into the house and started to search for the child.

His rescue effort can be seen in the body camera footage below.

“I got a little panicked for a second,” he said. “The smoke was so thick so I grabbed clothes off the bed and put them in front of my face.”

When Hudson couldn’t find the child, he ran back to the front of the house and the occupant, identified on a police incident report as Lynne Brown, told him that there was another room in the back out the house.

Hudson made his way back through the thick smoke that filled the home. He tried searching for the boy again, and finally saw him lying on a bed.

“I was definitely relieved to see him there,” Hudson said. “I grabbed him, and another officer opened up a side door for me. We ran outside.”

Hudson said that the child was “scared” after the ordeal. Hudson, who has three kids of his own, wanted to calm him down, so he decided to make the boy laugh by putting his glasses on his head. The boy’s grandmother gave Hudson a “big hug and kiss” and thanked his for rescuing her grandchild, he said.

Initially, Hudson did not want speak about the rescue, but decided to open up about it after reflecting on recent events involving police officers.

“After talking with some of my co-workers who pointed out everything that’s been going on nowadays with police, I wanted to,” he said. “It’s good for people to see we are human and we have children of our own. Ninety-nine percent of us aren’t trying to arrest people. We are trying to protect people and take care of our community.”

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