Cameras capture police officer saving choking 3-year-old

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Monday, December 22, 2014
(ABC News)
creativeContent-ABC News

MESQUITE, Nev. -- As a police officer saved a 3-year-old boy, who was choking on a piece of candy, the dramatic rescue was recorded on the officer's body camera. Take a look.

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Sources told ABC News that 3-year-old Damian Valencia was semiconscious, unable to breathe, choking on a Jawbreaker candy that he received at a birthday party. The boy's parents rushed into a Green Valley Grocery store with their son, where a cashier called 911.

Off-duty officer Quinn Averett was less than a block away when he received the call.

Averett raced into the store, turned the boy upside down over his knee and began a kind of reverse-Heimlich maneuver, with the officer's body camera capturing the moment the Jawbreaker popped free.

Days later, an emotional reunion occurred at the police station, with the boy's family stopping by to thank the man who saved Damian's life.

"When I saw him, I just started crying," said the boy's mother, Mariana Cardiel.

Averett says he became emotional, too.

"I cried a little bit because it really touched me, because I have children of my own," he said.

Another reunion is set for January, when Mesquite's police department and city council will honor the officer with an award. The boy's family plans to attend the ceremony.

"It was a good ending, you know, a happy ending," Cardiel said. "My son's still with me."