Police in Tacoma, Washington, didn't hesitate for an instant when they got a call earlier this week that a 15-year-old girl was struggling to stay afloat in the frigid waters of local Wapato Lake.
And it was all captured in a dramatic video.
Three officers raced to the scene from a nearby parking lot and forged into the freezing water. One of them, Officer Steve O'Neal, plunged in, fully clothed, to swim some 30 feet into the lake to pull the girl to safety on shore. O'Neal said the teen wasn't moving when he reached her, and her head was barely above the water.
"Every single one of us just stopped what we were doing and ran to the lake," O'Neal later told Seattle's KIRO-TV.
"We get trained to just act. Our who goal is to save lives and protect lives," added O'Neal, who noted it was his first water rescue.
Details of how the teene came to be in the water were not released by police. She was rushed to a local hospital following the rescue, where he was listed in stable condition. Her dad called the police department to thank the officers, KIRO reported.
"Going in there was just instinct and I know that anyone in our department would have done the same," said O'Neal. "I think it's obviously being a parent and being a police officer. There's no hesitation. You just protect and you save."
