Black Man Saves Cop from Burning Car: 'This Man is My Brother Through Christ'
Man finds an injured police officer trapped in his cruiser
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In these unpredictable times as cities across the US torn to pieces by far-left protesters amid calls to defund the police, once in a while, there are stories that reveal glimmers of humanity.
One such story is that of Daylan McLee.
31-year-old McLee was at a Father’s Day cookout in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, when he heard an explosion which he initially thought was an earthquake.
But minutes later, someone came to tell him there had been a car crash outside involving a police cruiser.
Without missing a beat, McLee ran out to the scene.
McLee found an injured police officer trapped in his cruiser before pulling him out as the flames began to engulf the car.
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“Then we started to see the flames start to come inside of the car from the bottom, and I knew we had to get him out," he added.
"Another officer tried to assist me, and I just ripped the door open and we started dragging him across the street before the car ignited or anything serious like that.”
“I know this man is my brother through Christ, and I couldn’t leave him behind,” McLee told KDKA-TV.
“There were people outside screaming. We felt it in the house. It was like a jolt.”
After the officer was rescued, he was flown to a hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia, where he underwent surgery.
Police credited McLee with saving the officer’s life.
Hanley’s sister has called McLee to thank him, as have the police chief and several officers.
But McLee has a history with police, which makes things more interesting.
“I haven’t had the best past with law enforcement,” McLee said.
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McLee ended up spending a year in jail after a fight outside an American Legion Bar in 2016.
But in late 2018, McLee filed a lawsuit against four Pennsylvania State Police troopers for wrongful arrest.
The incident unfolded when McLee's sister called him for a ride home from a bar she had been drinking were a fight broke out.
McLee confronted the combatants upon arrival, disarming a man with a gun in the parking lot.
He then threw the weapon aside.
But as McLee left the scene, a state trooper opened fire on him.
McLee, the trooper claimed, had pointed a weapon at him twice.
Security footage would later support McLee’s story:
He had disarmed the man and discarded the gun long before the trooper fired at him.
McLee was acquitted on the charges but still spent a year in jail.
“That was a year away from his children, and a year away from his mother, who was ill at the time,” the AP report noted.
“She passed away last year.”
McLee was also caught up in an incident with plainclothes police officers several months back after they approached him at porch gathering. He ran and only stopped when he says they identified themselves as police.
“He said he was charged with fleeing and resisting arrest, but said during that arrest an officer kicked him in the face through a fence, splitting his lip."
"He said the use of force was caught on a security camera and he plans to fight the charges,” the AP reported.
But despite McLee's altercations with police, and as AP writes “a Black man with tattoos visible on his neck and arms and twisted dreads that reach below his chin," there was never any hesitation to save a fellow human being
Talking to WTAE, McLee captured what this was all about.
“Human life,” he said.
“A lot of crazy things are going on in the world, and I haven’t had the best ends in life, but I know the value of human life. You can’t replace it."
“It’s Father’s Day. I’m not sure if he has children, but I know he has family, and I’m pretty sure they’re glad to have him there, and I’m glad he’s home, or going to be home.”
