A Chicago Police Department officer rescued a man before he became submerged in Lake Michigan Sunday.
Wadell Hardy, 21, of the Near North District department arrived first on the scene around 1 p.m. after police received a call saying that someone was in the water near 1000 N. Lake Shore Drive, according to The Chicago Tribune. Police believe the man, 58, may have tried to plunge in the water briefly before realizing he would struggle to get out.
When Hardy arrived on the scene, he immediately saw fear on the man's face. He said at first he was afraid to venture out onto the ice to try to rescue the man, but when the man called out to him, Hardy ran to save him. Hardy pulled the man half way out of the water so that only the lower half of his legs remained in the water.
Marine crews arrived and were able to extract the man from the water, police spokesman Veejay Zala said, according to DNAinfo. The team pulled the man from the 32-degree lake north of Oak Street Beach. The man was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, and he thanked Hardy several times for saving him.
