A Westchester County police officer was hit by a car while pushing a boy out of the path of that vehicle, authorities said.
Officer Paul DeSousa was on the Saw Mill Parkway Friday morning when he saw a 15-year-old boy walking north on a shoulder adjacent to the southbound lanes of the parkway, according to Westchester police.
The 27-year-old officer pulled over to speak with the boy and was preparing to give him a ride back to local streets when a 2014 Infiniti in the center lane lost control, crossing into the right lane and hitting an embankment before heading directly toward the officer and the teenager outside the patrol car, police said.
DeSousa grabbed the boy and hoisted him onto the hood of the car seconds before he and his patrol car were hit, police said.
The teen was not injured.
DeSousa was able to radio for help and was taken by ambulance to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. He was treated for non-life threatening injuries and later released.
"Officer DeSousa put the safety of the youth ahead of his own and used the few seconds he had to get the boy out of harm’s way,” said Police Commissioner George N. Longworth.
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DeSousa joined the Department of Public Safety a year ago after serving in the military in Iraq and Afghanistan, police said.
