Deputy saves woman by lifting an overturned vehicle off her head

A Virginia sheriff’s deputy, confronted with an overturned car and a child inside screaming for his mother, lifted the vehicle to save the woman trapped underneath, according to the Gloucester Sheriff’s Office.

When Gloucester Sheriff’s Deputy J. Holt arrived at the scene on May 7, he found a boy sitting in the overturned car screaming “mommy” and “she can’t breathe.” His mother was lying under the vehicle with her head pinned by the sunroof, according to the post.

“Seeing the trauma her child was witnessing, Deputy J. Holt went into overdrive,” the Sheriff’s Office wrote.

Holt can be heard saying he couldn’t lift the car, but then he told the boy to exit the vehicle and Holt can be heard straining on the body camera footage.

“Through sheer will and determination due to fearing the female may succumb to her circumstance in front of her panic-stricken child, Deputy J. Holt took quick action and was able to physically lift the vehicle up enough for the driver to maneuver her head out to safety,” the post said.

But this was only Holt’s most recent heroic rescue. In February, he received both regional and local “Top Cop Awards” for saving the lives of two individuals from a burning house in March 2020, the sheriff’s office said.