TACOMA, Wash. — New body camera footage from Tacoma police shows officers walking into Wapato Lake to save a teen girl who was struggling to stay above water.
The Tacoma Police Department (TPD) says officers were dispatched to an address on South Ainsworth Street just after 2 p.m. Monday after reports of someone who was in the water and appeared unable to get themselves out.
Officers ran into Wapato Park and found a teenage girl struggling to stay afloat. One officer swam out 20-30 feet, going under the water to push the girl's body toward a second officer who helped get her to shore.
More officers arrived to help render aid until Tacoma fire personnel were on the scene.
Steve O'Neal was one of the TPD officers who helped get the girl out of the water. He spoke to KING 5 on Tuesday about the rescue.
"We get trained to just act, right. Our whole goal is to save lives and to protect lives, so there's no training scenario I've been to to just run into a lake but I know that if it was my family or my daughter that's what I would be doing," O'Neal said.
The girl was taken to a local hospital as a precaution, and she is expected to fully recover.
Monday was O'Neal's first-ever water rescue, he told KING 5.
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