#Off-duty NYPD cop saves emotionally disturbed woman on his way to work

An off-duty Staten Island cop on his way to work became a homegrown hero Saturday after saving the life of an emotionally disturbed woman.

Joseph Everett, 34, a 4-year veteran assigned to the borough’s 120th Precinct, was on his way to work early Saturday morning when he saw what appeared to be a routine car accident on the northbound side on the West Shore Expressway.

“I pulled over to the right of the road, and as I’m walking up to the vehicle I see a female crying. I knocked on the window, started speaking to the female… she told me that she didn’t want to live,” Everett told the Post.

Everett sprang into action, calling 911 for an ambulance when the distraught driver asked the off-duty cop for “five minutes.”

“Right away, going into a situation you kind of have to determine once words are starting to be said that you know already [how] this situation is going to be handled,” Everett recounted.

“As I was talking to the female, and then talking to the 911 operator saying where we are, and what I have, the female proceeded to say: ‘can you give me five minutes, I just want five minutes, give me five minutes.’“ Which is when things almost turned tragic.

“I told her that I’m going to stay here, I’m going to talk to you and we’re going to we’re going to get through this.”

As Everett was talking to the 911 operator, the distraught woman dipped her hands into the side of a car door panel. That’s when the cop looked over the window and down, and saw the emotionally disturbed woman pull out an orange box cutter.

“I went to grab her hands and the box cutter right before she tried to hurt herself. I put the box cutter in my back pocket. I grabbed both hands of the female asked her why she was doing this. Why? She said she didn’t want to live. And I told her, you’re going to speak to me, we’re going to get the ambulance — you’re going to be okay.”

According to Everett, it appeared the driver intentionally tried to flip her vehicle off the road in an effort to deploy the airbags to render herself unconscious, and when that didn’t work only then did she attempt to harm herself with the box cutter.

“It actually makes you feel good that you really did help somebody that day.”

Originally from the Saint George section of Staten Island, Everett said that moments like this are why he became a cop.

“Becoming a police officer was important to me because of where my family grew up. I wanted to become a police officer to help out the community that I grew up in.”