NJ EMT Climbs Subway Tower, Revives Man During Knicks Parade

NEW YORK, NY — As thousands packed Lower Manhattan for the New York Knicks championship celebration, a crowd looked up at a man lying unconscious atop a subway tower.

Peter Shrieve-Don saw him first.

Wearing a point-of-view camera, Shrieve-Don pushed toward the structure and told people he was going to climb onto the roof to check on the man. People in the crowd repeatedly warned him that police had ordered spectators to stay off the structure.

“We really follow the rules out here,” Shrieve-Don said. “Well, he’s going to die.”

He climbed up anyway.

Reaching the man, Shrieve-Don shook him and tried to get a response.

“You gotta get up bro, you gotta get up,” he said.

Someone in the crowd tossed a water bottle roughly 12 feet up to the roof.

Below, spectators watched as the situation unfolded.

Then Simone Kelly moved.

Kelly, a Maplewood native, Columbia High School Class of 2020 graduate and emergency medical technician with the South Orange Rescue Squad, climbed the structure carrying Narcan nasal spray.

She reached the unconscious man and administered the medication.

Moments later, the man regained consciousness.

New York allows residents to obtain the medication without a prescription, and state and city laws require certain workplaces and nightlife venues to maintain overdose-response supplies.

State law also provides liability protections for people who administer opioid antagonists in good faith and for those who seek emergency assistance during suspected overdoses.

“Watched this happen in real time, was crazy,” Johnny Freds wrote in a comment on Instagram. “They're true heroes... An ambulance would've never been able to get through that crowd.”

Authorities did not immediately release the man's condition.

The rescue unfolded June 18 during the Knicks celebration and quickly spread across social media, where commenters debated whether large crowds help or hinder emergency response.

“Only in NY where everyone is useful and no such thing as bystander affect too,” one commenter wrote.

Others pointed to one of New York City's most enduring stories: the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens, long cited as evidence that people in crowds fail to intervene during emergencies.

That account, however, has faced decades of scrutiny.

The New York Times reported shortly after Genovese's murder that38 witnesses watched as she was attacked and failed to act.

Researchers later determined far fewer people witnessed the attacks directly, several residents attempted to help or contact police, and a friend rushed to Genovese's side before emergency responders arrived.

The case nevertheless inspired psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latané to study what became known as the bystander effect, the theory that people become less likely to help when others are present.

More recent research examining 219 real-world conflicts captured on surveillance cameras in the United Kingdom, South Africa and the Netherlands found a different pattern.

Researchers reported that at least one bystander intervened in about 90 percent of incidents and that multiple people often stepped in to help.

The Knicks parade brought together generations of fans chasing a shared moment.

When an emergency unfolded above the crowd, that sense of common purpose extended beyond basketball.

What followed was its own display of teamwork.