Sergeant Moriarty News Today

Detectives, officer honored for cases involving children

Up, and started to talk to her family. in the icu, erica was feisty, and combative. her neurosurgeon, dr. moriarty, said that was a positive sign. her brain was rebooting. >> did you pray a lot? >> yes. >> judith was the most religious and the family. one week after surgery, her prayers, and unshakable faith, were answered. ericas condition was upgraded, from critical, to fair. >> she looked bad, but i never dwelled on her not making it. >> now, the family needs to turn its focus to the one who ...

Part of the bullet, and broken bone. >> the surgeons lifesaving mission was to clean the fragments from americas hand, repair the wounds and preserve bring function if possible. >> erica actually was lucky in one way. the angle of the bullet wasnt straight through the brain, but downward, exiting under her chin. >> what a blessing as opposed to the bullet going through and damaging the skull and everything. >> and doctor moriarty, was it relieved that the bullet only struck the frontal lobe, whi...

Taking all in, sergeant sergeant moriarty, promise that he would give his patient a clean bill of health. no brain damage whatsoever >> shes wonderful. shes perfect. she is this little flower that has grown. >> he left there with the good brain. and thats very important. >> smart cookie. >> yeah. shes going to needed throughout life. >> when you look at erica, do you see any of your mom and america? >> yes. >> while parts? >> main thing, i see is our mouth. >> is that right? >> yeah, ericas loud...

His arms and legs around the man and braces himself. >> pat yelled for them to pull, and ill tell you what. it was the quickest ever i thought i would to go up an embankment, but it must have been the adrenaline on top because we slid out of there in a matter of seconds. >> and minutes later, sergeant moriarty is pulled to safety too. its a chaotic scene, but now both on solid ground, the two men who just risked their lives to save another search for each other in the crowd. >> we shook hands, a...

But on this day, its the force of men, not nature, thats the biggest miracle of all. an unbelievable rescue mission to save one man who has crept dangerously close to the edge of the falls. the call comes in on march 19th, 2003, 5:08 p.m. sergeant pat moriarty is on duty. hes a 19-year veteran of the niagara falls state park police. >> our radio man yelled down the hall and said, we just got a call from the canadians. theres a man on the ice at terrapin point. >> not a safe place to be. terrapin...

Captain kevin caffery hovers above, trying to get a rescue basket close enough for the man to grasp. >> we made four or five attempts to get him with the rescue basket. we got pretty close to him. the problem is with the treacherous air current, it was almost impossible to control the aircraft. >> at some point he said, im running out of power. were not going to be able to do this. >> another failed attempt. the chopper returns to land so the team can come up with plan "c." and in the water, car...

>> when i saw the victim standing almost in waist-deep water right at the brink of the falls, the hair on the back of my neck went up. >> moriarty immediately calls the fire department and the helicopter rescue unit. he also calls the power company upriver and asks them to use their dam to lower the water level. within minutes, niagara firefighter gary carella arrives on the scene. >> where the victim was standing is almost impossible to fathom. it is one of the most dangerous positions that a p...

>> the decision is made to lower carella and moriarty into the water. these two men, whod met only in passing before, know theyll need to trust each other. >> we shook hands and looked each other in the eye and i think we understood, im there to save your life and youre there to save mine. >> as theyre lowered into the water, they both have two ropes attached to their harnesses. one ties them to a small shrub on the shore, and the other is controlled by about 20 rescuers. they will use all of th...

Ice under the water, and that was the last thing i wanted to have happen. >> moriarty cant know it yet, but he would soon face his greatest fear. but for now, they inch out into the raging waters, hoping to get the man a life ring. onshore, a rescue worker finds a suicide note from the man now fighting fiercely for his life. but carella and moriarty know nothing about the note, and theyre able to make contact with the victim. >> we wanted to reassure him, tell him that were coming to get you, we...