A choking 11-month-old Bronx boy saved by two quick-thinking NYPD cops in a riveting rescue caught on the officers’ body-worn cameras showed up at the cops’ stationhouse with his grateful mom Friday to thank them.
Or at least give them a big hug.
“I feel so happy, and above all, so grateful,” Jhyler Montano’s mother Janibel, 21, said in Spanish as the baby was passed between happy saviors Police Officers Julio Arias and Caroline Abreau Garcia at the 44th Precinct stationhouse near Yankee Stadium. “It was something I truly don’t know how to thank them enough for.
Arias and Abreau Garcia were driving near 168th St. and Grand Concourse in their marked cruiser on Sept. 26 when they were flagged down by a good Samaritan who pointed to panicked Montano, who was crying as she was holding an unconscious Jhyler.
Body-worn camera footage shows Arias grab Jhyler, who was wearing one striped sock and a dinosaur costume, with one hand, hold the baby face down, and start to deliver back blows.
Arias slapped Jhyler’s back more than a dozen times before a wail from the baby signaled that everything was alright.
“Hey buddy… you’re good?” Arias asked the crying tot, according to the video.
“Once I heard that cry, that’s when I knew he was alright,” Arias told reporters.
“I felt like I was breathing again when I saw the baby crying,” added Abreau Garcia, who radioed for an ambulance while her partner performed the life-saving maneuver.
Barry Williams/ New York Daily News
Janibel Montano, 21, and her son Jheyler reunite with NYPD Officers Karolin Abreu-Garcia, right, and Julio Arias (not pictured) at the 44th Precinct station house in the Bronx on Friday. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
Arias said he felt whatever the baby spit up hit his shoe, but he was too concerned with making sure little Jheyler was alright to notice what it was.
“I just wanted to make sure he was good and apologize for hitting him so hard in the back,” Arias said.
Arias, a father of two, including a two-month-old baby, credited his police training as well as the recent birth of his own child for his smooth handling of the situation.
Barry Williams/ New York Daily News
Janibel Montano, Officer Julio Arias, Jhyler Montano and officer Karolin Abreu-Garcia pose for a photo at the 44th Precinct on Friday. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
Arias has been an NYPD officer since 2022, serving in the Bronx’s 44th precinct, which covers the southwest portion of the borough, including Yankee Stadium, Grand Concourse, and the Highbridge neighborhood.
Abreau Garcia has been an officer since 2021, serving in the same precinct.