MESA, Ariz. — Newly released body-camera footage showed two Mesa police officers scrambling to rescue a man pinned beneath a car.
The incident happened Tuesday morning when a man was apparently working beneath a car when the jack collapsed, sending the car body into his chest.
The video shows officers Josh Gardner and Nolan Martineau arriving at the home near Mesa Drive and 2nd Avenue around 8:45 a.m.
Devon Haycock was using two jacks Monday afternoon to prop up his wife’s car to make some repairs. When one of the jacks failed, the vehicle fell onto Haycock, pinning his face to the ground and coming to rest on his chest.
“The whole time my face was pinned right behind the wheel well so I could see my wife the whole time panicking. And it was awful, the whole time just saying I love you. It’s okay. I love you. I’m fine,” Haycock remembers. “Just trying to keep her calm. It was the worst time ever.”
Haycock’s wife Kaylin called 911, and Gardner and Martineau arrived in less than five minutes. They quickly decided that trying to use the broken jack or putting another one under the car would not work.
“Officer Gardner said we should try to pick up the car so we just went for it,” Martineau remembered.
The entire incident was captured on Martineau’s body-worn camera, and it shows Martineau and Gardner, along with the Haycocks’ neighbor, straining to lift the Civic, which weighs nearly 3,000 pounds. They were able to get it up just enough that Haycock could slide out from underneath it.
“When I heard ‘Okay, we’re going to lift it up’ that’s when my vision started to go blurry,” Haycock recalls. “When they lifted it up I slid right out the second I started to see the light from underneath the car.”
Haycock did not sustain any major injuries. The entire incident lasted less than 10 minutes.
The Haycocks are expecting a baby girl around Christmas, and they are very thankful to the officers for making sure he is around to be a father to her.
“I’m very thankful for those two officers,” Haycock said.