West Point cadet Larry Pickett Jr. started the weekend playing football for the Black Knights Friday night. He later started Sunday a hero.
Pickett Jr. is being hailed a hero after he and his dad, Larry Pickett Sr., pulled a man from his car after an accident. And before the car burst into flames, the Associated Press reported.
The accident happened early Sunday morning near the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
A video of the rescue showed the sophomore safety and his dad removing the man from his vehicle and carrying him across the road.
A woman could be heard yelling, “Larry! Come on! Come on! Get him out!”
The white sedan crashed into a utility pole on Route 9W in Fort Montgomery, New York, about four miles from West Point, authorities said.
The video was recorded by Pickett Jr.’s sister, Lauren.
Watch:
The Picketts were in town for Pickett Jr.’s first football game of the season. They saw the crash just after midnight. The family driving back to campus after a dinner in New York City’s Times Square. They stayed with the man until police and firefighters arrived on the scene.
“We knew that car was about to catch on fire and whoever was in there was going to burn up, and we couldn’t just watch and let that happen,” Pickett Jr. said to the sports news website The Athletic. “We got out, ran over, jumped over the power line, opened the door. He still had his seatbelt on.”
“What if we got there just a minute later?” he added.
Pickett Sr. spoke with WTVD-TV in the family’s hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina. He said his son “mentioned his military training kicked in” and “jumped right into action.”
Pickett Jr. has received accolades from his Army superiors.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll posted on social media, saying, “This young leader embodies the highest values of the Army and West Point: duty, honor, country. He showed that he can stand ready to act under pressure, whether on the football field, in his community, or in the future with the Soldiers under his command.”
He added Picket Jr., 20,
“… showed that he can stand ready to act under pressure, whether on the football field, in his community, or in the future with the Soldiers under his command. We are proud — and deeply grateful — for his heroism.”
“America’s future is in good hands,” he added.
The U.S. Military Academy posted on X that it was “proud of the heroic actions” taken by Pickett Jr. and his father.
The academy’s athletic director, Tom Theodorakis, wrote on X their conduct is “exactly what we strive to develop … leadership, courage, and selfless service.”
“Cadet Larry Pickett Jr. and his father exemplify the values we hold dear, stepping up in a moment of crisis to save a life,” Theodorakis wrote. “Proud to see these traits in action, on and off the fields of friendly strife. Count the brave.”
Earlier that day, Pickett Jr. assisted on a tackle on a kickoff in the first quarter of the Black Knights’ 30-27 overtime loss to Tarleton State.
“Thank you Jesus that this man will live to see another day! I am so grateful for my son LJ for saving his life!” Pickett Sr. wrote in a Facebook post accompanying his daughter’s video.
Pickett Jr.’s actions were a “testament to the character West Point is building in him — a readiness to go into the line of fire, not just for his country, but for anyone who needs it,” Pickett Sr. wrote.
