NYPD cops pulled teen girl from NYC River during heart-pounding rescue: video

Three NYPD cops pulled a teen girl from the freezing Harlem River during a dramatic caught-on-camera rescue Tuesday — with one of the hero officers stating, “Nothing else mattered but just getting her out of the water.” 

Uptown Manhattan police officers Ankit Gupta, Wilmer Guerrero and Shuaibul Amine were all lauded Thursday for their quick work after the young victim initially jumped into the chilly waters in what sources said was an apparent suicide attempt — and quickly regretted her near-fatal plunge.

“Somebody needed help, and this is what we signed up for, and we’re here to help, and that’s what we did,” Guerrero said.

Guerrero stripped off most of her gear and jacket to dive into the river and retrieved the teenager while two other cops were ready to yank the pair up to the shore near 142nd Street around 2 p.m., according to body camera footage.

“It was definitely a cold plunge, freezing. But at that moment, nothing else mattered but just getting her out of the water. So I got over it pretty quickly,” Guerrero recalled back near the scene of the rescue Thursday with Gupta and Anime.

“I just grabbed her by her sweater and her shoulder, and I was just swimming along with her, and then I was just pushing her forward.

“I was having a hard time because she was in such a panic frenzy. But I just kept my composure, saying encouraging words that we’re going get through this.” 

The heart-pounding moment began after authorities received a call about a girl in distress attempting to jump off the Harlem River Drive. As cops converged on the area and started running toward her on the rocks, she “just jumped into the water, with all her clothes on,” Gupta said.

The girl instantly began to desperately wail and screamed “help me, help me, please!”

As Guerrero readied himself to jump in, another cop asked, “Can you swim? Can you swim?”

Guerrero reached the girl, who was about 20 feet away, within seconds and helped get her back to shore.

Gupta and Amine, who also shed some of his gear in case he needed to also jump in, then pulled the pair back to safe ground, according to the bodycam footage.

The girl was quickly wrapped around with blankets once the Emergency Service Unit team reached the scene and an ambulance later brought her to a hospital conscious and alert.

“And hopefully we gave this girl a second chance, because obviously this thing could have gone a whole different way,” Guerrero said.

The three cops all work for the 32nd precinct and each have less than four years on the job. It was the trio’s first water rescue and a benchmark of their promising careers.

“I’m just glad that we were all there as a group, that it was a group effort that gave her a second chance,” said Gupta as Anime added, “It’s great when you save somebody. That’s what we signed up for in this job, right?”