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Officers across three New York City departments banded together to rescue a woman and her cat who were pulled out into the East River by rushing currents underneath the Brooklyn Bridge.
NYPD officers were the first to respond to reports of a woman in distress — with her white cat in tow — in the river just before 3 p.m. last Thursday.
The cops, alongside FDNY and New York City Department of Parks and Recreation officers, reached the shore near the end of the Brooklyn Bridge and lobbed a lifesaver into the brackish waters.
The woman could be heard screaming and pleading for help as she clung to the preserver, body camera footage released by the NYPD shows.
The responders tugged the woman back onto dry land using a rope hitched to the preserver.
Halfway through the water rescue, one officer spotted a small, slow-moving speck in his peripheral.
“The cat! The cat!” the officer shouted as he pointed to the white feline, who was drifting closer to the shore.
One responder broke away from the group to nab the frigid feline while the rest hauled the woman onto dry land.
An officer helped the woman take a few steps on the sand before she collapsed in a fit of sobs. She lay limp on her back, overwhelmed by exhaustion and fear.
“What happened? Are you okay? You’re okay,” one officer tried to console as the woman blubbered something unintelligible.
She was taken away on a stretcher and is in stable condition at a local hospital, according to the NYPD.
The cat is also on the mend. The NYPD shared a picture of the good-natured pet swaddled in a towel.
Officials are still investigating the situation. It’s not immediately clear how the woman and her cat wound up in the river in the first place.
English (US)