AURORA, Ill. (CBS) — Police officers do and see lots on patrol – however the efforts of some Aurora officers are main many to name them true heroes this Thanksgiving Day.
As CBS 2’s Jermont Terry reported, the officers jumped into chilly waters the day earlier than Thanksgiving to avoid wasting a 9-year-old boy who had run out to get his soccer and ended up falling by the ice.
Around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, a 911 name despatched officers to the Fox Pointe house advanced in Aurora. The name was for an individual drowning – a 9-year-old boy who had fallen into the water and could not get out.
Officer Andrew Soderlund answered the decision.
“We’re driving there,” Soderlund mentioned. “You’re kind of playing that scenario through your head = what exactly are we going to see when you we there?”
Officer Soderlund and his accomplice jumped out and headed proper to the pond – the place the 9-year-old boy had fallen into the icy water.
Onlookers directed the officers within the boy’s route. The youngster had fallen in attempting to get his soccer – but when the boy went on the frozen pond, the ice cracked.
By the time officers arrived, a lady who tried saving the boy was additionally caught.
“They were pretty far out there – and obviously, they weren’t making any way of getting closer to the shore,” Soderlund mentioned.
Officer Soderlund ran again to his squad to seize a rescue equipment.
“I know I’m not an Olympic swimmer, so I knew that hey, I’m not going to be able to swim with the two other people in the water,” he mentioned.
Soderlund pulled out the rope and tied a knot round his waist – then jumped in.
“That adrenaline dump that goes on in situation like that – I don’t remember the cold at all,” he mentioned.
Yet the water was dangerously chilly – and Soderlund shortly discovered it was deep too.
“I originally started walking out, I was like, ‘Wow, this isn’t bad – I can stand up,’ and then it just dropped,” he mentioned. “It felt like it was no bottom.”
When Officer Soderlund received out to the retention pond, the very first thing he did was take off his bulletproof vest – as a result of it might have weighed him right down to the purpose the place he couldn’t have gotten to the lady and child.
“I wanted to be as light as possible,” Soderlund mentioned.
The mission was successful. Facebook video launched by Aurora police confirmed officers within the water, and throwing out ropes on the shoreline, to rescue the boy and the lady.
But as soon as everybody was out of the water, a chill hit Soderlund.
“One of my partners actually, he helped me unbutton my shirt because my fingers weren’t working,” Soderlund mentioned.
The two officers who had been within the water, the lady, and the 9-year-old all went to the hospital to get checked out. Everyone was protected Thanksgiving night time.
“I thought my son was not going to be here to see Thanksgiving,” the boy’s mom mentioned within the Facebook video posted by police Thursday. “Somebody was out there to call 911.”
She thanked everybody who stepped in to name 911, and everybody who helped rescue the teenager.
But Soderlund mentioned, “I don’t consider myself necessarily a hero.”
On Thursday, officers introduced the boy a brand new soccer to play with on Thanksgiving.
