Army sophomore safety Larry Pickett Jr. doesn’t remember a word spoken as his family came upon a car crashed into a utility pole early Sunday morning in Fort Montgomery, N.Y., a few miles from the West Point campus.
“There was no conversation,” Pickett Jr. told The Athletic, but there was quick processing and action.
The car had hit the pole seconds earlier; that was clear from the smoke emanating from it. A downed power line meant grave danger for anyone in the car. A few bystanders had gathered, watching. Larry Pickett Sr. put the car in park, and father and son raced to the driver’s side of the crashed BMW.
“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. “We got out, ran over, jumped over the power line, opened the door. He still had his seatbelt on.”
The driver was unresponsive. The Picketts got the seat belt off and dragged him out. Pickett Jr.’s sister Lauren was taking a video at this point, capturing Pickett Sr. falling to the ground a couple of feet from the car. At that point, his wife, Shawnonne, yelled: “Larry! Come on! Come on, get him out!”
