On Jan. 19, a Hyattsville police officer pulled a driver out of a burning SUV on Queens Chapel Road. Body camera footage released by the Hyattsville Police Department (HPD) shows Cpl. Kelly Hernandez running towards a burning SUV as a man calls out, “Please help — my leg’s broken — please.” Hernandez quickly grabs the man, pulls him out and drags him to safety while flames continue to engulf the vehicle.
“Hearing his pleas for help, I just knew I had to get him out of there,” Hernandez told 7News DC during a February interview.
Hernandez said the original call was an iPhone car accident alert. Some iPhones are equipped with crash detection technology that will alert emergency personnel to a severe car crash in their vicinity. Hernandez said that she didn’t know, therefore, what type of car accident she would find, nor its exact location.
“I’m not surprised Cpl. Hernandez stepped up and risked her own life for someone else,” HPD Chief Jarod Towers said in an email. “This incident reinforces Cpl. Hernandez’s commitment to the communities for which she serves, and serves as a reminder of the sacrifice that our officers make for people they don’t even know. They are true heroes.”
Hernandez joined the HPD in October 2017. In 2021, she became the department’s first certified drug recognition expert and also received several traffic safety awards, as reported in our September 2021 article. Hernandez is with the department’s patrol division and supervises its traffic safety team, according to Towers.