Rescue of Man From Tracks Captured on Bodycam of Officer Meir Green

By Reuvain Borchardt

BROOKLYN — A man who had fallen onto train tracks in Brooklyn on Monday was pulled to safety by police officers and a civilian, in an incident captured on the bodycam of NYPD Officer Meir Green.

At 2:34 p.m. Monday, Green and his partner Officer Morgan Brown, patrolling the F line’s Smith-9th Street station in Carroll Gardens, were alerted by a civilian that a man had fallen onto the tracks.

Green and Brown began running up the stairs toward the platform, as seen in Green’s bodycam footage, which was tweeted by the NYPD, and as Green recounted in an interview with Hamodia.

“Officer Morgan Brown ran toward the beginning of the platform to try to stop any incoming trains, while I ran down the platform,” Green said. “I saw the person on the tracks. I immediately radioed for backup, and I asked Transit if they could shut off the power. I didn’t know how long it was going to take me to get him off the tracks. I saw him struggling trying to get up. He was having a hard time.”

Brown succeeded in flagging down an incoming train to stop at the beginning of the station, then joined Green and a civilian in pulling the man onto the platform, to safety.

The man appears to have been disoriented and fallen onto the track. Green radioed for an ambulance. The man, who was not seriously injured, was talkative with EMS, and was transported to a local hospital.

Green, 36, a Boro Park resident and a graduate of Torah Vodaath and Mir-Yerushalayim who wears a tzitzis and yarmulke under his uniform, has been on the force for three years. He is assigned to Brooklyn’s 76th Precinct, which includes Carroll Gardens, Red Hook, Cobble Hill, parts of Gowanus, and the Columbia Street Waterfront District. He is a brother-in-law of Lieutenant Special Assignment Yitzy (Ira) Jablonsky.

Green has gained a measure of fame in the community since the NYPD tweeted his bodycam footage Monday. But he shrugs it off as being “fortunate enough to be the right place at the right time,” and that he’s pleased the incident had “happy ending,” and says, “What the public saw was one minute in a day of a life of a police officer … Every day thousands of police officers in New York City put on this uniform and it happens many times throughout a police officer’s shift that they have to make split second-decision to run toward danger while everyone runs away. Every single person that wears this uniform is a hero, even though not every day does every story get out of what the police officer did.”

Inspector Richie (Yechiel) Taylor, the highest-ranked of some two-dozen yarmulke-wearing cops in the NYPD, told Hamodia he was proud to see his protege in action.

“I’ve known Meir Green for almost 20 years, and I’ve seen him grow as a police officer,” Taylor said. “I’m not surprised to see his quick thinking and swift action in saving this person’s life. Police Officer Green truly represents what it means to be one of New York’s Finest.”

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rborchardt@hamodia.com