By Erica L. Green
The Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — Normally, nights on patrol don’t turn up much excitement for Evanston Police officer Matthew George. That changed Sunday night, when he heard a man’s voice yelling, “We’re going to die” as he stood on the shore of Lake Michigan.
In the minutes following, George and his fellow officers found themselves trying to save two people from drowning.
“It was pretty scary,” George said Monday. “There was a point where I didn’t know if we were going to be able to get to them.”
George was the first to respond to several 911 calls of distressed screams coming from a man and woman swimming in Lake Michigan.
Shortly before midnight, George shone his flashlight on Lee Street Beach, where he did not see the swimmers, but heard a man yelling that he and a woman were going to die, and pleaded to George to help the woman first.
About 10 other officers had arrived on the scene and followed George into the lake equipped with a ResQ Disc -- a small, Frisbee-like flotation device with a 100-foot floating line.
Officers found Jeffrey Greenberg of West Dundee about 50 yards offshore and pulled him to safety.
They found Heather Sue Muffett of Hammond, Ind., about 100 yards offshore, struggling to stay afloat.
“The woman was in bad shape,” George said. “We didn’t know if the line was going to be long enough to get to her.”
Greenberg and Muffett were cited for swimming on a closed beach.
Copyright 2008 The Chicago Sun-Times