Despite all that, they do and witness while on patrol, several Aurora police officers are being hailed this Thanksgiving as true heroes for their actions.
The day before Thanksgiving, as CBS 2’s Jermont Terry reported, the police dove into brisk seas to save a 9-year-old boy who had rushed outside to retrieve his football and ended up sliding through the ice.
On Wednesday at 4:30 p.m., a 911 call directed authorities to the Fox Pointe apartment building in Aurora. A 9-year-old youngster who had fallen into the water and was unable to get out was reported to be drowning.
The call was answered by Officer Andrew Soderlund.
Soderlund said, “We’re going there by car.” What precisely will we observe when we arrive? You seem to be running that scenario in your thoughts.
In the pond, where the 9-year-old boy had plunged into the chilly water, Officer Soderlund and his colleague leaped out and went straight there.
The officers were pointed in the boy’s direction by onlookers. The ice cracked as the boy stepped onto the frozen pond because he had slipped while attempting to retrieve his football.
By the time the police came, a woman who had attempted to save the boy was also trapped.
They were quite a distance from the coast, and it was evident that they had no plan to get there, according to Soderlund.
To get a rescue kit, Officer Soderlund hurried back to his squad.
I’m not an Olympic swimmer, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the other two in the water, he said.
Soderlund took hold of the rope, fastened it around his waist, and then dove in.
Aurora police rescue boy who fell through ice in retention pond, woman who went in after him https://t.co/PFHRkCPIpm pic.twitter.com/WfIyu9MEJa
— CBS Chicago (@cbschicago) November 24, 2022
I don’t remember the cold at all because of that adrenaline dump that occurs in circumstances like those, he admitted.
However, the water was quite chilly, and Soderlund soon discovered that it was deep as well.
Wow, this isn’t bad; I can stand up, I thought as I first started walking out, and then it just dropped, he recalled. “It appeared to have no bottom.”
Officer Soderlund removed his bulletproof vest as soon as he arrived at the retention pond because it would have prevented him from reaching the mother and child if it had made him too heavy.
Soderlund stated, “I wanted to be as light as I could be.
The endeavor was successful. Officers were seen in the ocean and tossing ropes onto the sand to save the boy and the woman in a Facebook video that the Aurora Police Department shared.
But as soon as everyone was out of the water, Soderlund felt a chill.
Soderlund explained, “One of my partners actually helped me unbutton my shirt since my fingers weren’t working.
The mother, the 9-year-old, and the two officers who had been in the water all went to the hospital to be examined. Thanksgiving night saw no accidents.
In the Facebook video that was uploaded by police on Thursday, the boy’s mother said, “I believed my son was not going to be here to see Thanksgiving.” “Someone went outside to dial 911.”
She praised everyone who intervened to dial 911 and all who assisted in rescuing the child.
But Soderlund remarked, “I don’t necessarily consider myself a hero.”
Officers gave the youngster a brand-new football on Thursday for Thanksgiving.
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