According to The Staten Island Advance, the child was on a Sunday afternoon shopping excursion when his foot became lodged in the escalator. Video taken by a shocked shopper on the ground shows the unidentified child visibly in distress as surrounding family and bystanders try to free him.
A woman is also heard yelling for the escalator system to be shut down before the boy sustained further injury. It appears that, before the emergency stop button could be pushed, bystanders were trying to stop the escalators themselves, although the humming of the machinery is still heard in the background.
“At first they tried to line the escalator with as many men as they could in an attempt to push the escalator wall with their feet, but it didn’t help,” one shopper told the local outlet.
Though not featured in the video, the outlet reported that an employee at a nearby store brought over creams and lubricants in an effort to slide the child’s food out. Eventually, mall staffers brought out a metal rod that was successfully used to pry the escalator walls apart and free the boy.
It was not immediately clear if he required additional medical attention, but photos taken at the scene indicate that he did lose his shoe in the rescue operation.
Several patrons at the local mall were astonished by the brave actions of their fellow shoppers. One woman in attendance was New York State Senator Diane Savino, who posted in a detailed Twitter thread what she saw.
“On Sunday, I was at the Mall, I ran into Mike Reilly, we chatted for a few minutes, happy to be out of Albany and doing something normal,” she wrote. “A few minutes later I heard a child screaming as if he were being tortured and came upon a scene that is every parent’s nightmare, a child who had his leg stuck in a moving escalator.”
What surprised her most of all was how others nearby immediately responded to the emergency. Her tweets praise the quick-thinking of those in the mall that led to the boy’s rescue.
“And then these amazing people didn’t stick around for photo ops, or any credit, they just picked up their own kids and went back to their own lives,” she concluded. “Thank God for them all. Mike and I thought it was important that someone know about this, because this is the real face of Staten Island.”
In a statement to The Staten Island Advance, Savino added that she was “really proud of the people of Staten Island right now.”
This little boy was very fortunate that his terrifying escalator ordeal ended on a positive note. Last week, a woman in Australia who was also pinned down by her shopping center’s escalator was robbed by a bystander pretending to help her.
