The set for a TV show turned into a real-life drama in Brooklyn, as cast and crew members rushed to help a teenager who was hit by an SUV while walking his dog.
Surveillance video captured the incident just after 5:30 p.m. on Monday, as police said that the driver of an SUV was heading east on Avenue X in Gravesend when she lost control of the vehicle. The woman struck another car before veering onto the sidewalk, slamming into the 14-year-old.
"My producer, Michele Francesko, she grabbed me and said there's a kid underneath the car, and all of the sudden it was chaos," said William DeMeo, a Brooklyn-native actor and filmmaker who was filming the mob show "Gravesend" less than a block away from the crash.
"We heard the boy screaming, and we'd seen his leg kicking, his leg was visible," DeMeo said.
At least a dozen people, including DeMeo, could be seen on video working to save the teenager trapped underneath the right front tire of the car. DeMeo and other Good Samaritans, including some of his staff, made the decision to move the car with brute force.
"We were a little nervous, afraid if we lifted and God forbid it falls on him, or if it was attached to a part of his body," DeMeo said. "As a team, we lifted up the car, and I see the boy and he was bleeding from his head."
Anthony Guarino, who was nearby and helped free the teen, said that he heard a big rumble and made it sound like the house he was in was shaking. When he went to the scene, he said he immediately knew they had to get the kid freed from underneath.
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"I started to scream, 'We gotta lift the car up, get the body out.' It was horrible ... all you had was minutes, what are you going to do — just leave him there? It's terrible," Guarino said.
The teen was rushed to Maimonides Hospital, and neighbors said that the quick actions likely saved his life.
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"Around this neighborhood, it's like that. People come out of nowhere, it's always been that way, been living here all my life," said Guarino.
DeMeo said that he's already planning something special for the teenager along with his film crew, and said he will pay the boy a visit once he is released from the hospital.
"I think God put us there, that's how I feel personally," DeMeo said. "I think we were there for a reason, that's my belief."
Police said that the women driving the SUV remained at the scene. No charges have been announced.
