A horrible, beautiful moment in Haiti gained two cops recognition from the 84th Precinct Community Council last week.
At its Feb. 16 meeting, the council honored Deputy Inspector Robert Lukach and Lt. Kenneth Beatty, members of Task Force 1 Urban Search and Rescue, an elite rescue team comprised of cops, firefighters and police dogs that pulled six people from the rubble of earthquake ravaged Haiti.
Media outlets recently captured Lukach, the leader of the task force, rescuing a boy from the rubble, hoisting him from a certain doom.The image resonated with Leslie Lewis, the president of the community council, who set out to honor the officers offered help to the devastated island nation.
Lukach recalled the day, saying he was driving along Martin Luther King Boulevard in Haiti when a police officer stopped the car, saying there was a disturbance outside a man’s destroyed home.
Turns out, the man causing the ruckus was the father of two children trapped in a concrete prison for about seven days, and he was enraged that no one was helping rescue the pair, who were alive only because of a small hole through which their father was able to provide water.
It was through the water hole that Lukach and his team siphoned a camera to locate the boy and his sister.
The team carefully chipped through the concrete slabs, and finally got to the boy— who initially refused his freedom because he didn’t want to leave his sister, Lukach recalled.
The boy’s aunt convinced him in Creole that it was OK, and he was safely extracted, soon followed by his sister, with cameras capturing the moment. “This was very rewarding for us,” Lukach said.
The siblings were in surprisingly good health, and required only a few days of medical treatment, and were released.
At the meeting, the pair earned plaques, applause, and appreciation from the Brooklyn community council — and likely beyond.
