Off-duty police officer caught on camera rescuing choking child

(MELVINDALE, Mich.) — A Michigan police officer is being hailed as a hero for his quick actions to save the life of a 3-year-old boy who was choking.

Mohamed Hacham was getting ready to take a nap Monday before his shift with the Melvindale Police Department when he said he heard screaming outside and reports on his police radio of a 3-year-old who was not breathing.

Hacham said he raced outside and ran toward a crowd that was gathered around a young boy.

Hacham’s sprint to the scene, alongside his brother, was captured on neighbors’ surveillance cameras.

“I get there and I just get handed a baby, basically,” Hacham told Good Morning America. “And I was like, you know, this is my time. This is this is what I got trained to do at the police academy.”

He continued, “In my head I was like, he’s not dying in my hands. That’s not going to happen.”

Hacham, just three months into his job as a police officer, said he began pressing on the child’s back, putting in place what he had learned in his training.

“I wasn’t getting a response, but I was just, you know, talking basically to myself, ‘Let’s wake up, wake up. Let’s go,'” Hacham recalled. “Luckily, I got him to start coughing.”

The boy, who was not identified, was rushed by paramedics to a nearby hospital. He is now back home with his family, according to ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV in Detroit.

Hacham, 25, said the rescue happened on the same street where he has lived his entire life.

He said the incident has already changed his perspective on life.

“It makes you rethink the purpose of living,” Hacham said. “And the purpose of being on this Earth is for the little ones, and making sure they grow up and have what they need.”