Video: Ind. Officer Rescues Girls after Driver Flees Car in Pond

By Bob Kasarda

Source The Times, Munster, Ind.

A St. John police officer saved the lives of two children Sunday night after jumping into the cold, murky water of a Hammond retention pond and pulling the children from a partially submerged vehicle that plunged into the pond during a police pursuit.

Officer Darrell Shaffer said he didn't know if there were kids in the car that he'd followed into Illinois and back to Indiana after the driver allegedly fled an 11:08 p.m. traffic stop by Lake County sheriff's police at 101st and White Oak avenues in St. John.

But a police dashboard recording shows Shaffer didn't hesitate to shed some 40 pounds of police equipment and jump into the pond to save anyone who needed rescuing after the driver lost control of her vehicle and ended up in the water.

Shaffer told reporters Monday that when he waded over to the vehicle in the chest-deep water he spotted a 3-year-old girl floating in the backseat whom he managed to pull out through the front passenger window.

"I didn't know how much time I had to get her out," he said.

Officers then told him to look for another child, a baby, in the vehicle. But Shaffer said he didn't see a baby, a car seat, or anything else.

"All I could see was water. There were two bags of clothes that I moved out of the way and I still couldn't see the baby," Shaffer said.

"Then I reached in the water and I felt the leg. I pulled her upside down out of the water and handed her to the Lake County sheriff's officer that was on the embankment to get her to an ambulance."

Shaffer said the 8-month-old girl wasn't crying when he pulled her from the water and had a terrified look on her face after being underwater for approximately 90 seconds.

"I didn't know if she was breathing. I just wanted to get her out of the water and into the medic's hands," Shaffer said. "(The children) did nothing wrong. They were in a bad situation that they shouldn't have ever been put in."

Ultimately, Shaffer had the opportunity to see both girls, conscious and alert, in the back of an ambulance before they were taken to a Region hospital.

Both children later were transferred to Comer Children's Hospital in Chicago, police said.

Shaffer, a father of three and a former officer in the East Chicago and Dyer police departments, choked up as he thought about what might have happened to the two girls if he hadn't been right there when the car plunged into the water.

"This is hard," he said. "We see stuff as officers, and firemen, and EMS, and all first responders. We see stuff that people should just never see, and sometimes it hits home."

"In a high-speed pursuit like that, you don't want anything bad to happen to anybody."

St. John Police Chief Steven Flores said there's no question Shaffer is a hero.

"We are very fortunate that he was there when he was and he got to them as soon as possible," Flores said. "I truly believe that his efforts saved those kids' lives."

" The St. John Police Department, and our entire community, is extremely proud of Officer Shaffer and his heroic efforts. He did not hesitate, and his actions went above and beyond to save the lives of not only one, but two children."

According to Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez Jr., the incident began when the vehicle was pulled over for allegedly speeding in St. John.

During the traffic stop, officers discovered a 26-year-old male passenger from Chicago had an active warrant for failure to appear on drug-related charges out of Iowa and police attempted to place him under arrest, Martinez said.

However, Martinez said the man ran away from officers and actually ended up in a different retention pond, where he eventually was nabbed by police and taken to a hospital for treatment for exposure.

While that was going on, the 24-year-old female driver, also from Chicago, took off from the traffic stop, prompting officers to give chase, Martinez said.

According to police, the pursuit headed westbound on 101st Avenue into Illinois, northbound on Illinois 394, and then eastbound on Interstate 80-94 back into Indiana until ending in the retention pond at the northbound Kennedy Avenue exit.

Martinez said the case remains under investigation. But he said the male passenger could face a criminal charge for fleeing, while the female driver may face a felony resisting charge as well as two counts of felony neglect of a dependent.

The Indiana Department of Child Services has been contacted to look after the children, Martinez said.

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