Spooner (WQOW) - 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.
