Deanna Boyd
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
FORT WORTH, Texas — A Fort Worth police officer is being called a hero for helping to save a man who almost drowned in Lake Como.
Officer Kellie Whitehead was patrolling west Fort Worth on July 1 when she and two other officers were dispatched to Lake Como, where someone was struggling in the water.
A witness had seen the man walk into the lake and then start screaming for help. Another witness jumped in but could not help because the current was strong and the man was uncooperative, according to police.
Arriving on the scene, Whitehead removed her gun belt and locked it in her patrol car before rushing to help what she feared was a child. Dash-camera video shows her removing her shoes, shirt and bulletproof vest, before jumping into the lake in her undershirt and pants.
“The point that I dove into the water, I was just thinking that I’m going to get this guy or this kid and I’m going to make sure he’s safe,” Whitehead recalled Tuesday in an interview with reporters at Lake Como.
Realizing that it was a man, not a child, Whitehead said, she quickly had to devise a plan to keep him above water without going under herself.
“Once I got out there, my plan was just to keep us alive,” Whitehead said.
“I got behind him and I was talking in his ear, not to panic,” she said. “It started as, ‘You’re going to be OK. … Don’t panic. Relax. Take a deep breath.’ It got to the point … ‘We’re going to be OK. We’re going to be fine.’ Just trying to keep both of us from panicking because it wasn’t that long that I was in the water but it seemed like forever.”
Fort Worth firefighters soon arrived and helped pull the man and the officer to safety.
Whitehead said she is seeking to get flotation devices for officers to help when they’re the first responders on such calls.
She said the attention paid to her efforts is humbling.
“We all come to work every day. We all make a difference in somebody’s life,” Whitehead said. “This, to me, is just another day. It’s just another day. It’s a day that made me think back and think stuff could have gone terribly wrong.”
Copyright 2015 the Fort Worth Star-Telegram