{"id":116865,"date":"2026-01-30T00:18:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T00:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/116865\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T00:18:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T00:18:28","slug":"nypd-cop-saves-second-baby-from-choking-again-hes-at-right-place-right-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/116865\/","title":{"rendered":"NYPD cop saves second baby from choking \u2014 again he’s at right place, right time"},"content":{"rendered":"

New year, new baby to save.<\/a><\/p>\n

Just weeks after heroically saving a neighbor\u2019s choking 1-year-old girl<\/a>, an NYPD officer was at it again, saving the life of a 2-year-old boy who had stopped breathing in his Bronx home.<\/p>\n

\"NYPDNYPD Officer Freddy Cerpa and Officer Megan Ficken are pictured at the 43rd Precinct stationhouse in the Bronx on Thursday, January 29, 2026. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

After a few well-timed backslaps, Officer Freddie Cerpa, who had responded to another officer\u2019s distress call about an unresponsive child, had the silent toddler crying in no time.<\/p>\n

\"NYPD\u00a0OfficerNYPD\u00a0Officer Freddy Cerpa, left, and Officer Megan Ficken are pictured in body-cam footage performing CPR on an infant. (NYPD)<\/p>\n

When Cerpa arrived at the Bronx home at Watson and Manor Aves. on Jan. 16, he found Officer Megan Ficken working hard to get the little boy breathing again.<\/p>\n

\"NYPD\u00a0OfficerNYPD\u00a0Officer Freddy Cerpa, left, and Officer Megan Ficken are pictured in body-cam footage performing CPR on an infant. (NYPD)<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of used my past experience from a month ago to try to give her an idea of what I did last time,\u201d Cerpa told reporters Thursday. \u201cLike checking the airways, doing the backslaps. Once we did that, we were able to work together as a team, and we were able to save the child.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paramedics soon arrived and rushed the boy to Jacobi Medical Center.<\/p>\n

Last month, the backslapping beat cop was off duty at his home in Elmont, in Nassau County, when a frantic neighbor ran up to his porch with his choking daughter.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Off-dutyOff-duty NYPD\u00a0Officer Freddy Cerpa is pictured in surveillance footage performing CPR on an infant. (NYPD)<\/p>\n

Cerpa calmly turned the 1-year-old girl around and had her breathing again after a few slaps on her back.<\/p>\n

Both rescues were caught on camera. The rescue outside Cerpa\u2019s home was captured on surveillance video.<\/p>\n

Cerpa and Ficken were recorded on another officer\u2019s body camera.<\/p>\n

Ficken happened to be across the street when the call came in. Cerpa said he ran three blocks to the location.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want everything to work out perfect,\u201d Ficken said. \u201cIt amps the intensity, the urgency and the understanding of how impactful this situation is for parents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NYPDNYPD Officer Freddy Cerpa and Officer Megan Ficken are pictured at the 43rd Precinct stationhouse in the Bronx on Thursday, January 29, 2026. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Both officers are rookies, and credited the training they received in the NYPD Police Academy.<\/p>\n

\u201dWe saved another child\u2019s life,\u201d Cerpa said. \u201cLike I said last time, our mission at the NYPD is to preserve life. I\u2019m just glad we were able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New year, new baby to save. Just weeks after heroically saving a neighbor\u2019s choking 1-year-old girl, an NYPD…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,63,261,265,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-116865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-sub-county-region","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}