Winston Salem State running back Kenneth Sharpe Jr. is being hailed as a hero, after pulling 13 year old Benjamin Rodwell from a burning car on U.S. Highway 158 near Vaughan, NC.
[WRAL]
Kenneth Sharpe Jr., 19, a freshman running back at Winston-Salem State University, was driving home to Harrellsville with his girlfriend, Brittany Whitaker, when they came across the wreck.
“So I automatically put the vehicle in park and I told my girlfriend to go ahead and get in the driver’s seat,” he said.
Sharpe saw Benjamin Rodwell trying to escape the burning vehicle.
“He was about four feet from the fire,” he said. “And I got to him. I was about a good five or six (feet). And I told him ‘Hey crawl to me, crawl to me.’ I grabbed him. I pulled him on my shoulder and I automatically started taking him to the car.”
Whitaker drove to Halifax Regional Medical Center in Roanoke Rapids while Sharpe kept the teenager awake. There were severe injuries to the lower half of Rodwell’s body, Sharpe said.
“I said ‘What’s your favorite color,'” he said. “He said ‘My favorite color is orange.’ I said ‘What sport do you like to play?’ He said ‘I like to play football.'”
The two drivers involved in the accident, Zachary Rodwell (Benjamin’s brother) and Brandon Lee did not survive.
Sharpe Jr. comes from a family of firefighters, so heroism obviously runs in his blood. Kudos to him for being on the right side of the headlines and prayers go out to the families of the two young men who lost their lives.
H/T: HBCU Gameday