By Andy Paras
The Post and Courier
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Scotty Tugya saw the look of horror on the drowning man’s face and knew he had to do something.
Tugya was one of four Charleston police officers who stood in a downpour on the bank of a West Ashley pond Sunday afternoon, calling to the unknown man as he paddled helplessly at the water until disappearing beneath the surface.
“It was really sad to see him in that state. There was a look of desperation in his eyes,” Tugya said Monday. “Once I saw him go under I just stripped as soon as I could and went in after him.”
The five-year veteran took off his boots, belt, vest and shirt and jumped feet first into the pond that snakes behind several houses in Charlestowne Estates I.
The officers responded to the neighborhood about 4:10 p.m. after receiving a call from residents concerned about a man walking through one of the neatly trimmed yards on Donahue Drive. Officers responded within a couple of minutes and spotted the man struggling to paddle in the pond surrounded by live oaks and other tall trees.
He drifted some 50 feet behind a house on Carterett Avenue. Tugya arrived just in time to see three officers encouraging the man to swim toward them as he struggled about 15 feet offshore. The man told officers his name was “Tim,” but that was all they learned from him before he slipped under the surface.
Tugya, a stout 30-year-old with biceps as thick as his Jersey accent, grew up swimming in ponds and creeks around Princeton, N.J. He followed his instincts, he said, and went into the cold water.
“The look on his face compelled me to do so,” he said Monday while standing alongside the pond. “He was absolutely terrified.”
Tugya took a couple of steps into the pond and felt himself sink into the mud below. He then swam about 15 feet to where the man had gone down, a spot still marked by air bubbles. He reached down until his chin touched the water and grabbed the man. He swam back to shore where officers Melanie Donald, Jonathan Nacy and Matthew Greenleaf helped pull both of the exhausted men onto dry land.
Mud filled the man’s mouth, nose and ears, Tugya said. The officers scooped the mud out of the man’s mouth while Greenleaf sprinted to his car to retrieve a plastic mouthpiece that helped Donald, an EMT in the Air Force Reserve, do CPR until Charleston firefighters and EMS arrived and continued the life-saving efforts.
“It was definitely a team effort,” Tugya said. “It seemed like an eternity when we were working on him but it was probably only four or five minutes.”
Officers searched the man’s clothes for any indication of who he is but found nothing, Tugya said.
The man was rushed to Medical University Hospital where he remained in critical condition Monday.
Police are asking for help identifying the man. Tugya described him as white, about 5-foot-5, 145 pounds and clean-shaven.
Copyright 2010 The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)