- Today's do-gooder or "Drew-gooder" as we're calling them,
he is 18-year old Justin Gavin from Brooklyn, New York.
He saw a burning car on the street
with a mother and her three children inside
and, without hesitation,
he risked his own life to pull each one of them
out of that burning car into safety.
(audience applauding)
Please welcome right here in the studio, Justin Gavin.
(applauding and cheering)
- Hi.
- I am really star struck to meet a real life hero.
(laughs)
- I'm not, I wouldn't call myself a hero.
I just thought, I just did what was right.
So I'm not gonna call myself a hero.
- But may I ask, when you see that,
what goes on inside of your head and body?
Is it a trajectory that just happens?
Are you thinking? What does it feel like?
- To me, I feel like, at that moment it was no thinking,
I just thought what was right.
I knew if I was in that situation
I'd definitely want someone to do exactly what I did.
But, not hoping it was like that,
but I'm just glad I was there at the right place
at the right time.
- You really were.
So what, you were just walking down the street
on your merry way. (laughs)
- Yeah, I was running an errand
and I just saw a bunch of cars
and they was just honking their horns
and they was yelling out
And I was clueless, I didn't know what was happening.
So, I actually did see the car after a while
and I'm like, Oh get out the car, get out the car,
your car is on fire,
and nobody was running towards the car,
was trying to do anything to help out.
So I just ran towards the car.
- And do you reach in at that point? Do you open doors?
What are you doing?
- I told the oldest, which is nine years old,
to unbuckle her seatbelt, her siblings seatbelt.
It was nine, four, and one, I believe.
It was scary for me
'cause I didn't know what was going to happen.
I thought at that time I was actually going to lose my life
and they gonna lose their life.
But if I did lose my life
I would have lost my life trying to save somebody else.
So it was --
(clapping and cheering)
- I mean, do you believe in angels?
- Yeah, I do.
A lot of people call me an angel,
but I just feel like I just did the right thing.
- You really are an angel and, I mean,
I believe there are humans masquerading as angels.
I believe that there is capacity in a human,
but, to sit here and hear your story
I mean, you are what I think people need to believe in.
We need to believe in angels in human form.
I just, okay, so everyone ended up okay?
- Yeah. Everybody ended up okay.
The mom, at one point, she couldn't really breathe correctly
but the paramedics helped her out. Gave her more oxygen
so she can actually start breathing correctly.
And, she was just grateful that I was there.
The kids was grateful.
I was just happy that they was all safe,
I'm glad that I was safe,
I'm glad everybody in the area was safe.
Nobody really got harmed, but --
- I mean, you saved an entire family.
I just, I'm sorry, I'm really, I am just in awe of you.
And the mayor of Waterbury, Connecticut,
where this happened, when he heard what you did
he wanted to do something for you.
So he asked me to give you this proclamation of the town
(laughing) (cheering and clapping)
in honor of your bravery.
And that's not all.
When we heard that you had a particular,
favorite basketball player, he also heard what you did
and he had this to say. It's Carmelo Anthony
- What?
- Yo, Justin it's Carmelo Anthony here bruh.
I heard about your story man.
I wanted to let you know how inspiring
and courageous you are man. You a true, true hero.
You've inspired me man,
and I'm so inspired to have someone like you
supporting me throughout my career.
I appreciate it more than you even know.
I also heard you're a sneaker head like me,
so we're going to hook you up with some Joint brands stuff,
merch and that, as a small thank you
for the big thing - No way.
that you've been doing and that you continue to do.
So, I leave you with this,
just keep pushing man, keep persevering,
keep making your family proud.
Again, thank you for what you did
and just know we all rooting for you man,
and know you're going to continue to do great things.
Peace .
Stay mellow.
(audience whooping and screaming)
(laughing)
- We also found out that you're a fan of the Brooklyn Nets
and they wanted to say thank you too.
(laughing)
- So. (laughing)
- Oh, this is awesome. (laughing)
- So we have hooked you all up.
We're getting you season passes, go to all the games.
The players are excited to meet you
and, really, there's just not enough
that we can do here at the show.
There's no way to sort of monetize
or match your act of saving an entire family,
but we just wanted to start in some way
and everybody joined in and we just are in awe of you.
Honestly. - This is --
- Thank you, so much. - Thank you, Justin.
Thank you, Justin.
(upbeat music)