A Florida deputy is being hailed a hero after he saved a couple who were trapped inside a burning car by shooting out the window.
Manatee County Sheriff’s Deputy Willie Finklea saved the lives of Neil Cook, 64, and his 65-year-old wife, Claudia Cook, on Sunday afternoon.
Finklea spotted the burning vehicle after he took a different way home on his motorcycle with his wife, who called 911.
Florida Sheriff’s Deputy Willie Finklea (pictured) saved the lives of Neil, 64, and Claudia Cook, 65, who were trapped inside a burning car, after he used his personal weapon to shoot out the window
Finklea spotted the couple’s burning vehicle after he took a different way home on his motorcycle with his wife, who called 911. Pictured are Neil and Claudia Cook
Finklea, a father-of-one, said he tried banging on the window ‘several times with my hand’, but to no avail. He then used his personal firearm and fired a shot through the vehicle’s left rear window
The father-of-one told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that he tried banging on the window ‘several times with my hand’, but to no avail.
‘All I had was my keys and my pocket knife so I had no other tools other than my off-duty weapon to make entry into the car,’ he said.
Finklea then used his personal firearm and fired a shot through the vehicle’s left rear window.
He said he was cautious when he aimed his personal firearm low and away from the Cooks in order to shatter the window.
The officer then got into the car, opened the rear passenger door and got Claudia Cook out first. Neil Cook was able to crawl to the front passenger side, open the door and escape.
Finklea said he was not carrying the tool used to break windows that emergency personnel have with them in their service vehicles, according to the Herald-Tribune.
The Cooks told authorities they were driving down Moccasin Wallow Road around 2.30pm when they noticed smoke coming from their vehicle. Pictured is the passenger side of the badly burned car
Neil Cook pulled over and realized the vehicle was on fire, but the couple was trapped inside because the electronic windows and locks were not working. In this photo, the rear window is shattered from the gunshot
The Cooks told authorities they were driving down Moccasin Wallow Road around 2.30pm when they noticed smoke coming from their vehicle.
Neil Cook pulled over and realized the vehicle was on fire, but the couple was trapped inside because the electronic windows and locks were not working.
Finklea said he doesn’t think it was an accident that he was there to help the husband and wife escape before their car was engulfed in flames.
‘Just being used by God to help someone in their most desperate time that’s a gift for me,’ Finklea told the Herald-Tribune.
The Sheriff’s Office says there were no serious injuries because of Finklea’s quick actions, calling him a ‘true hero’.