Last week, a driver on a highway west of Tampa saw a toddler wearing nothing but a diaper walking toward a pond on the side of the roadway and called 911. Within minutes, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) had dispatched a pair of deputies to the scene. "The call came in at 10:25am and our team was there by 10:35 - able to assess the situation," says HCSO Assistant Chief Communications Officer Phil Martello.
Deputies Arron Gibson and Clarissa Brady quickly scanned the scene and determined they would need to enter the muddy pond to rescue the four-year-old non-verbal child who they later learned is autistic. The moment was recorded on body cam and shows Gibson wading into the water up to his chest, picking up the boy, who was kept afloat by reeds in the water, and handing him off to Brady, who brought him back to dry land.
In the end, the boy was safely returned to his grateful family. Martello says the moment shows the value of the deputies' training and their dedication to the public’s safety. Adding, "This could have been a very different story had more time elapsed or the child just been in a different area of the pond."
Source: ABC 7 NEWS