MIAMI (AP) – A Florida sheriff’s deputy was sleeping when his 11-year-old daughter called and asked him to pick her up at her school bus stop. Seconds later, his daughter screamed into the phone. “Dad, help me, help me!”
Polk County Sheriff’s Deputy Jonathan “JJ” Quintana told reporters at a news conference Friday that he assumed the worst as he jumped out of bed Thursday afternoon and ran barefoot to the bus stop. He found his daughter safe, but immediately saw the carnage left when a suspected drunken driver hit five of her fellow Dundee Ridge Middle Academy students as they walked home from the stop. One student later died of his injuries.
Quintana, 30, ran back home for his patrol car, yelled for his wife to toss him his keys and some shoes and drove back to the scene to assist the injured children. By then, two nurses had stopped to help the injured students.
The deputy – still limping and visibly shaken Friday – said a witness at the scene pointed out the car that had allegedly just crashed into the children.
Quintana saw the black vehicle had hit another car about 4,000 feet (1,219.2 meters) down the road. The driver then stumbled out of the vehicle. A woman who was four months pregnant was injured in that crash, according to authorities. They didn’t release her name.