PAX Centurion - January / February 2013

Page 10 • PAX CENTURION • January/February 2013 617-989-BPPA (2772) Boston Police officer jumps into frigid water to save woman’s life By Erik Ortiz A Boston police officer is being hailed as a hero after video captured him saving a drowning woman struggling to stay afloat in the city’s harbor. Officer Edward Norton said his immediate instinct was to jump in and rescue the unidentified woman from the bone-chilling Fort Point channel just before 1 p.m. on Friday, December 21, reportedWHDH- TV in Boston. A witness said he heard people screaming, “She’s in the water!” and then Norton jumped in. “She was in there calling for help and I can swim,” Norton later toldWHDH. Another officer had been given a life preserver and threw it to Norton. “I was able to hold on to that,” Norton added, clutching the woman and keeping her from drowning before the fire department showed up and divers pulled both of them out. “He didn’t hesitate ... (he) took off his belt and jumped into the water swam over to get her,” bystander Hal Munger, who recorded the rescue, toldWHDH. The circumstances for why the woman, described as being in her 30s, was in the frigid waters wasn’t immediately clear. She was suffering from hypothermia and was taken to a hospital along with three firefighters and a police officer, the Boston Globe reported. Witness KeithYoung toldWHDH that Norton acted without hesitation. “Tell you what. That cop was the hero today. Didn’t think twice about it,”Young said. Norton brushed off the daring feat, saying it’s what police and emergency rescue workers are trained to do. “If we don’t help, then no one’s going to,” Norton said. (Reprinted from the NewYork Daily News, December 23, 2012.) Hero copEdwardNorton heard the cries of ‘She’s in the water’and rushed in to rescue thewoman fromdrowningand thenawaits rescue himself after the rescue. Bostonfirefighterswork to rescue awomanwho fell into thewater ofBostonHarbor. Apolice officer dove into the water and saved her and then awaited rescue himself, on a small wooden pier. The unidentified victim suffered hypothermia, police said.