America's Biggest Heroes of the Year

A 1-year-old girl is alive today because of the actions of Elizabeth, New Jersey, police officer Leo Nunes. The officer responded to a call at a residence around 5:30 p.m., where he found an unresponsive child — the child had been underwater in a pool for about a minute. He administered CPR on the girl and revived her. She was taken to a hospital where she stayed for 24 hours and was reportedly doing well.

A former heavyweight boxer notched his most important victory in September. Mitchell Rose, 49, was eating at an East New York restaurant at 11 p.m. when an SUV collided with another car at an intersection near the restaurant. As smoke was filling up the SUV, Rose realized the five women and a man were trapped in the vehicle. He used his “sweet science” skills to punch out the back window, slashing his hand with the blow. But the passengers were rescued and taken to a hospital.

In September, Deputy Taylor Grant had been with the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office for only 18 months, but he’d already made a positive impact. Grant scaled a wall that was much taller than himself, sprinted to a dock, and saved the life of a drowning man trapped between the seawall and a floating walkway. According to the wife of the man, he had been in the water for about 30 minutes.

Seventeen-year-old Mario Alexander helped save the lives of two co-workers at a Target store in Marietta, Georgia. After two people were stabbed during a robbery at the store, Alexander, a corporal in the Cobb County Police Explorer program, jumped into action. He placed a tourniquet on the arm of one employee who was stabbed in the arm, then put gauze and pressure on the wound of another worker who had been stabbed in the neck. Both stabbing victims were reported to be recovering from their wounds.

When a knife-wielding attacker pursued a woman into a Starbucks, others fled — but not Blaine Hodge. The aspiring rapper and actor, who was at Starbucks for a business meeting, put himself between the assailant and the woman. The attacker injured Hodge, but the police arrived and grabbed the assailant. Hodge was taken to a hospital and listed in critical but stable condition after suffering at least seven stab wounds, including injuries to his right hand that may never completely heal. A GoFundMe page was set up for Hodge, who thanked friends and supporters on several videos.