Unemployed. A father of two. Brooklyn resident Delroy Simmonds was on his way to a job interview on Tuesday June 26, 2012.
For some, that alone would be reason enough to ignore the tragedy unfolding before him.
As he was waiting for the subway at Van Siclen Ave. station in Cypress Hills, New York, a strong gust of wind hit.
“It had to be 30, 40 miles an hour,” he recalled. “There was a woman with four kids. One was in a stroller. The wind blew the baby onto the tracks,” Simmonds told The New York Daily News.
He jumped on the to tracks and hoisted the stroller and bleeding baby back on the platform as the train entered the station, blowing it’s horn at him. He scrambled onto the platform himself as the train came to a screeching halt halfway into the station.
“It was the fatherly instinct. I have two daughters of my own — 8 and 5. I was being a father. I would have done it for any baby,” Simmonds said.
The 9-month old toddler was taken to the hospital and treated for cuts to the face and head as a result of the fall.
Simmonds left moments after recueing the child but missed his job interview.
No matter. When Guy Rodriguez, a project manager for ABM Janitorial Services at John F. Kennedy International Airport, saw a news story about Simmods heroics, he made things right, according to the New York Daily News.
"We read the story and were like, 'Wow! This is unbelievable. This guy is a hero,'" said Rodriguez, who hired Simmonds as a mantenience worker – the same type of job he’d been going to interview for when the subway mishap occurred.
It turns out Simmonds decision and actions were an excellent character reference.
“He's got character, he's humble, he takes pride in his work. He's got a positive attitude. Everything he is was right there in what he did. He didn't hesitate, What he did to save that baby, it just shows character,” Rodriquez told the New York Post.
