NYPD officer hailed as a hero after saving life of choking child

Two moms, Latisha and Zaquarna Harper, were crossing the Brooklyn Bridge when they realized that their baby, a foster child, was not breathing.

Eventually the baby went limp, at which point Latisha said that she panicked. "The baby started choking," said Latisha. "He couldn't catch his breath."

Luckily, the moms spotted NYPD Officer Dillan Krasteff across the street. "I saw a lady jump out of a car, run between traffic, and came to the police vehicle and said, 'The baby's not breathing. We need help,'" Krasteff said.

Krasteff, a father and nine year veteran of the NYPD, immediately bolted across the street to help the choking child.

"I started CPR, I counted, and I told the mother, 'Listen, you've got to give me a hand. It's a two-people job,'" Krasteff recounted. "'So when I tell you breathe, you're going to breathe.'"

Together, Krasteff and Latisha were able to get the baby breathing again.

"I started seeing the eyes started moving, and the baby was trying to take a deep breath, so I started rubbing his stomach and back," the officer noted.

Krasteff and his supervising officer have since gone to visit the child in the hospital.

"He's an angel," Latisha cheered graciously. "Because honestly, if he wasn't there, [our son] wouldn't be here... I hugged him, I grabbed him, I hugged him, and I just thanked him."

"I understand we're in a pandemic, but I had to hug him," the mother exclaimed.

The mothers say that despite being from Rochester, they plan on keeping in touch with Officer Krasteff.

"That's our angel," Latisha said. "Officer Krasteff is our angel."