A New York Police Department officer used an empty potato chip bag and tape to assist a victim’s stab wound in a Harlem neighborhood, July 7 body cam footage shows.
The footage, released Monday, showed 28th Precinct NYPD Officer Ronald Kennedy saving the victim’s life after he was stabbed in the chest in front of 290 Lennox Avenue, NYPD Police Commissioner Dermot Shea reported in a July 16 tweet.
Above & beyond!
Watch as @NYPD28Pct cops keep a stabbing victim alive using an empty potato chips bag & tape.
NY’s #Finest at work…pic.twitter.com/OGRJoa0q5i
— Commissioner Shea (@NYPDShea) July 17, 2021
“Go get me a bag of potato chips right now,” the officer said to a civilian nearby. The man followed Kennedy’s orders and rushed into a nearby store.
“He [the suspect] caught me in my lung,” the victim told Kennedy. When the man returned with the potato chip bag, Kennedy poured the chips onto the sidewalk and placed the empty bag onto the victim’s chest, footage shows. (RELATED: Police Arrest Homeless Man For Allegedly Stabbing Eric Adams Volunteer)
The officer, along with two other people, taped the bag onto the chest to stop the bleeding and ordered the man to stay awake, footage shows. EMS arrived at the scene, removed the bag from the unidentified victim’s chest, then rushed him to Harlem Hospital.
The attending physician at the hospital said Kennedy’s actions saved the man’s life. The suspect’s motive behind the stabbing or whether they remain in custody is currently unknown, according to CNN.
New York City has experienced a steady surge in murder and assault rates in 2021 compared to the previous year, NYPD crime data shows. The city has recorded 233 murders as of July 18, 2021 versus 226 in 2020. Additionally, felony assault has increased by 6% from last year.
Surveillance footage from June 30 showed three unidentified men stabbing a homeless man in the back with a sharp object in NYC’s Midtown Plaza. A few weeks prior, an 82-year-old man was assaulted and had his cane stolen in a NYC corner store.