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NORFOLK POLICE BEAT: Police Officers brave frigid waters of a creek to save disoriented man
NORFOLK, Va. – A Norfolk police officer jumped into the frigid waters of the Knitting Mill Creek to rescue a man Friday afternoon (March 23, 2018).
Officer Tyler McElroy and his partners, Officers Ryan Shepherd and Michael Torian, responded to the Knitting Mill Creek in Colonial Place for a water rescue around 11:40 a.m.
When the officers arrived, they saw a man floating in the water roughly 10-15 feet from the shore. “Medics threw the man a life-ring, but the man did not seem to understand,” McElroy stated.
“We knew he was in trouble, so we did what we had to do,” McElroy said, as he and Shepherd took off their duty belts and other equipment to assist the unresponsive man.
“We knew he was in trouble, so we did what we had to do,” McElroy said, as he and Shepherd took off their duty belts and other equipment to assist the unresponsive man.
McElroy jumped into the frigid water and walked over to the man who was floating on his back roughly 10 feet from the shore.
“It was cold,” said Shepherd. “You didn’t really think about how cold it was until afterward.”
Once McElroy reached the man, he noticed the man was extremely pale and disoriented. McElroy pushed the man back to shore, where Shepherd and Torian, along with Firefighter Kevin Harmon, pulled him from the icy water.
Harmon described the man as “confused and was believed to be suffering from hypothermia.”
The man, in his 60s, was taken to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital for treatment.
The cause of the man entering the water is unknown; however, if it was not for the brave first responders who quickly acted to save the disoriented man from the icy waters, he might not have survived.
