May 21--FAIRFIELD -- Three Fairfield officers jumped into the Sasco River Saturday to save an autistic man who'd jumped from a bridge.
Police were dispatched at 1:22 p.m. Saturday to a report of a missing 19-year-old who lives in the area of Post Road and S. Pine Creek. Police were told he was last seen running from his home in traffic toward Sasco Hill Road.
Officers quickly found the man running along Harbor Road toward a stone bridge. He climbed a wall and jumped into the water.
Police and family members tried to talk him into returning to shore, but he ignored them. That's when Officer William Demotses, a member of the department's dive team, and Sgt. Edward Weihe and Office Lance Newkirchen jumped into the water to rescue the man.
They got the man to shore, where two more officers helped get him out of the water. He was checked by an ambulance crew, then released to his mother.
Copyright 2012 - The Hartford Courant, Conn.
