One of New York's bravest spoke out after jumping in to save a teen girl who was hit by a car in Brighton beach Thursday morning.
Zuri Mesa Flores, 19, is still in critical condition after police told News 12 she was hit by a car while skateboarding across a crosswalk. Jose Cristales was the off duty first responder who saved her life.
"Yeah, I get the pat on the back, we all get the pat on the back for everything that we have done, but it's also like the feeling of how she's going to do, how is she doing," said Jose Cristales.
Cristales was off-duty Thursday morning when he heard what was happening outside of his home.
"I seen the young woman pinned under the wheel and a whole crowd, so I had to go there and look around and see what we had, so automatically I knew we had to get the girl out from underneath the wheel and start CPR," said Cristales.
He said he knew in his gut what needed to be done to save her life.
"All my muscle memory, all my training everything just kicks in. That one instinct, I got to respond, I got to assess, Igot to go ahead and make sure everything's OK, will be OK," said Cristales.
According to Vision Zero, Neptune Avenue, where this accident happened, has seen four injuries so far this year, one last year and three in 2022.
At this time, the NYPD told News 12 that 43-year-old Saddam Tufail has been arrested and is now charged with failing to yield to a pedestrian or bicyclists with injury and failing to exercise due care.
As for Zuri, her family and the FDNY said she's still in critical but stable condition and they're staying hopeful she can pull through.
