Lake Placid officer David Rhoden’s body camera was rolling as he jumped into Lake June on May 22 to help rescue a child trapped underneath a pontoon dock.
Rhoden said when he heard the call for a child trapped he expected the worst.
“I immediately thought the kid was pinned under water,” Rhoden said.
Lake Placid volunteer firefighter Rafael Ramos can be seen on Rhoden’s body camera looking for a way to swim under the pontoons to reach the child. Both, said they were extremely relieved to see a scared kid looking back at them.
“His head was above water and he had a terrified look on his face and he was crying so I knew he had some air and was breathing,” Rhoden said. “But, the water was going back and forth on him.”
Rhoden lifted the dock as Ramos swam in. Other volunteer firefighters struggled to keep the dock elevated as Ramos worked to free the child.
“I told him if he could kneel down a little and he put his shoulders to the side and slid right in,” Ramos said.
The three year veteran of the volunteer fire department said it was the first time he rescued someone.
“It was my first, it was a great learning experience,” Ramos said. “To be honest, I felt real good after that that he was ok that everything came out perfect. He said ‘thank you’ his mom said ‘thank you’ too.”
Rhoden’s worked for Lake Placid police for two years. His days don’t always end that good.
“It's not very often I get to see a good outcome like that especially where it could've been extremely bad,” Rhoden said. “If his head was underwater we would've been dealing with a fatality. o, it was nice to look back at it and see he was fine and I had a part in that.”
