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Marge Rosenbauer, Officer McNiff (COURTESY CH. 7 EYEWITNESS NEWS)
Margaret Elko Rosenbauer was at a 70th birthday party for her friend Saturday when, she said, she began choking on a piece of beef.
Several people, including a nurse, rushed to help after Rosenbauer fell to the floor. None could dislodge the meat, though.
Rosenbauer had stopped breathing and was turning blue when McNiff, dispatched to Banchetto Feast restaurant, began what would be dozens of chest compressions.
After CLIFFVIEW PILOT gave Rosenbauer McNiff’s name, she contacted Westwood Police Chief Frank Regino. She said she wanted “to let him know how much credit this young police officer deserves.”
McNiff said he was merely doing his job and that thanks were in order for several others who helped out. He admitted he wasn’t aware of the standing ovation that those gathered around gave him as he left the restaurant.
“I was more focused on the victim than the details of what was going on around me,” he told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.
McNiff comes from a family of law enforcement officers and firefighters that stretches back four generations. His younger sister is a homicide/major crimes detective.
And Monday was his own mother’s birthday. “She said reading the article was the best present she could have gotten,” the young officer said (SEE: 88-year-old woman hails Westwood officer who saved her life ).
Although he’d just as soon duck the spotlight, it’s found him, with national coverage and the “Eyewitness News” reunion. McNiff admits to the satisfaction of a job well done but just as quickly diverts attention to those whose assistance he said was critical.
As for his role: “I don’t think it’s that big a deal, considering the amazing things some [police officers] do,” McNiff said. “It’s our job to do that kind of stuff.”
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