Denver Officer Stops Traffic For Woman Stranded in Power Wheelchair

A dead electric wheelchair in the middle of a Denver street could have left one woman with a serious problem getting home, but two police officers happened to come across her at the right time. One of them ultimately traded his patrol car for some old-fashioned horsepower and pushed her the rest of the way himself.

According to the Denver Police Department, Officers Fernando Yanez and Duck found the woman near East 14th Avenue and North Emerson Street on August 23 after her electric wheelchair lost power. The officers first stopped traffic around her before figuring out how to get both her and the wheelchair safely out of the roadway.

Rather than leave the woman waiting for another solution, Yanez got behind the wheelchair and started pushing. He continued for more than two blocks until the woman made it all the way back to her home.

Duck followed close behind while the group traveled in a traffic lane, helping keep vehicles away as his partner handled the considerably more physical part of the trip. Denver Police later shared video of the encounter under the fitting title “Compassion in Action.”

Thankfully, this was one roadside problem that didn’t require a tow truck, jumper cables, or much more than a willingness to help. For Yanez, however, it did require pushing an electric wheelchair for more than two blocks while his partner essentially provided the world’s slowest police escort.

Image if He Wasn’t There

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In the video shared on Facebook, you can see the officers manually pushing the powerchair across the street and making light conversation along the way. In the bottom right-hand corner of the screen is a map that shows just how far he was willing to walk to ensure that this woman got to where she was going safely.

He doesn’t seem to stop at any moment throughout the video, even though you can audibly hear his breathing become more labored. When they arrived at her building, the officer went above and beyond to make sure that she was able to get through the front vestibule without any issue as well.

There isn’t any additional footage after this, so it’s unclear if she was also escorted to her door, but I imagine that she was. Additional information, including the woman’s name and the circumstances behind why her chair lost power, was not made public in this post.

Comments and Reactions to Denver Officer Pushing Woman Home

The response to the department’s video was overwhelmingly appreciative, with commenters thanking the officers for doing something that went well beyond simply getting the woman out of traffic. One person wrote, “Well done!” before thanking the officers for their “service and support” and for “looking out for OUR community.”

Others kept their reactions much simpler, repeatedly writing “Thank you” alongside blue hearts, prayer hands, and heart emojis. Another commenter summed up the general mood with, “That’s good thanks you guys,” while several people responded almost entirely with hearts.

There wasn’t much controversy to be found under this particular police post, with most people seemingly happy to see an ordinary patrol turn into a small act of kindness. Sometimes getting someone home safely doesn’t require flashing lights or sirens — just one officer willing to push and another willing to make sure traffic stays out of the way.