Page 32 - 2018 July Newsletter

The Rescuers
4th District officers go all in to save drowning boy
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
When the dispatch call came about a young Hispanic male reportedly drowning in Wolf Lake on beat 433 in the 4th District, Officers Robert Mc- Donald and David Sodetz sped to the scene with only one response in mind. When they arrived at the shoreline near the 126th block of Avenue O right outside Hegewisch, the course of ac- tion unfolded without hesitation.
“I had told my partner that in case anybody is in the water, I would be jumping in,” explained McDonald, who served as a lifeguard for the City as a teenager and was also a swim in- structor. “As fate would have it, we get this call and I’m thinking, ‘If this guy is legit in the water, I’m jumping in.’ And he was.”
At approximately 7 p.m. on June 5, Sodetz made the scene a few seconds ahead of McDonald. Within five min- utes, they saved the life of a 17-year-old boy who had wandered into the lake at the end of a bad day. They braved wa- ter cold enough to slow their adrena- line and, in the process, showed how that badge of courage is more inherent in Chicago coppers than many people sometimes give them credit for.
“The current was trying to push us out, but when we got out there I felt confident in my swimming,” com- mented Sodetz, who likes to do some SCUBA diving when on vacation. “(The boy) kept saying he didn’t know how to swim.”
He wasn’t there to swim. There’s no pier to jump into the water from anywhere near the response site. And when McDonald and Sodetz reached him, they found the boy with his boots and jeans on and wearing a hoodie and other layers of clothing.
32 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JULY 2018
The quick response from 4th District Officers David Sodetz, left, and Robert McDonald saved a boy drowning in Wolf Lake.
“We knew that if his body went under, it would be hard to find them.”
Even though it was 7 p.m., there was enough daylight to get a good visual. They spotted him about 200 feet out. From his lifeguard training, McDon- ald, who at 27 years old has been on the job for three years, knew what a
Robert McDonald
drowning victim looks like. And this appeared to be a drowning victim.
“His head was bobbing consistent- ly in and out of the water,” McDonald described. “He was splashing a lot. With this being a body of water, as