Dallas Morning News
DALLAS — Quan Nguyen grew up cheering television’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as they battled evil to protect the world. But it was the inspirational actions of a real-life crime fighter that brought Nguyen, 25, to the ultimate moment of his life Thursday, when he became an Arlington police officer.
That living hero, Sgt. Scott Wegscheider, was in town Thursday to pin the badge on Nguyen’s chest during graduation ceremonies for Arlington’s 40th police recruit class. It was the culmination of a relationship that began 17 years earlier in Colorado when Wegscheider saved the life of Nguyen’s older sister, Kim, after she fell into a neighbor’s pool during a party and stopped breathing.
The two saw each other briefly two days later at the hospital where Kim was taken, but they never formally met. Both moved on, but they never forgot each other or that June day in 1993.
“All I ever knew was that an officer saved my sister,” said Nguyen, moments after he and his 22 classmates officially joined the ranks of Arlington’s more than 600 sworn officers. “But while I was at the police academy {ellipsis} I thought about him. I didn’t know who he was, but I made it my passion to find out.”
Nguyen, who moved to Texas about a year ago after his mother, Kim and another sister came here, started making phone calls.
He tracked down Wegscheider in Colorado. The two spoke, and Nguyen invited him to Arlington to attend the graduation.
“You never know who’s watching you,” said Wegscheider, who acknowledged he was battling both his nerves and his emotions. He still wears a small white “life saver” pin on his uniform that he said he received for saving Kim Nguyen’s life.
“It makes me feel real good,” he said. “It’s good to see the good ones make it.”
On that day in Colorado, Wegscheider said, he was called to the scene of a drowning. When he arrived, Kim had been at the bottom of the pool for 10 minutes and “she was gone,” he said. Nevertheless, he and a fellow officer began CPR on her and she was eventually revived.
“I knew by the time she left that house that she was alive,” Wegscheider said. “I’m glad to see that her family’s still with her.”
Nguyen, a native of Vietnam who came to the United States when he was 2, said that as a child, he always knew he wanted to do something that would help others.
“When you’re a kid, you want to be so many things,” he said. “But when an officer comes in and rescues your sister, it brings back that passion. I wanted to be able to tell him that I was going to be a police officer and he had a big impact on my decision.”
Nguyen’s family beamed with pride Thursday, both for their son and for Wegscheider.
“He still remembers my family,” said Hung Nguyen, the new officer’s father. “I just hope my kid learns from him and keeps getting better and better.”
Nguyen’s mother, Anna Phung, said that she was honored to see her son become a police officer “because of his spirit and how he helps to change and give back to society.”
Nguyen’s 23-year-old sister, Quynh, started to laugh when asked about her brother’s new job.
“His favorite hero was always the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” she said smiling. “But eventually, he really did wind up doing something to help the community. I think our sister would be very proud of him.”
Quan Nguyen hopes so. And he says he can never thank Scott Wegscheider enough. When the two finally saw each other again moments before Thursday’s graduation, Nguyen said he was overcome with emotion and at a loss for words.
Nguyen said he was prepared to shake his hand. “But he looked at me and said, ‘we’re way past that now,’ and he just reached out and gave me a big hug,” he said.
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