Atlantic Metropolis firefighters teamed up with native police to save lots of a person from near-freezing Jersey Shore waters on New 12 months’s Eve, regardless of the obvious sufferer’s efforts to stab considered one of them with a screwdriver.
The incident occurred round 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday when items from the fireplace and police departments responded to a name of a man in misery off the jetty close to Rhode Island Avenue Seashore, authorities mentioned in a press launch Friday.
Upon arriving to the scene, fireplace items noticed the person floating within the frigid waters simply past the jetty. He seemed to be acutely aware, however “was not actively swimming,” police mentioned.
Carrying a dry go well with designed to battle the weather, rookie firefighter Dominic Gitto jumped into the ocean with a longboard and swam out to the person — who then “tried to stab Gitto with a hid screwdriver.”
Gitto managed to keep away from getting stabbed and continued his rescue efforts, regardless of the person’s “aggressive and erratic habits,” police mentioned.
Different rescue employees then entered the water and made a number of makes an attempt to convey the person to shore, however have been hindered by his continued resistance. They have been finally capable of get him into shallow water by forming a human chain and pulling him towards land.
His combative habits allegedly continued on the shore, the place he was subdued by police and brought into custody.
Gitto, whose dry go well with started taking over water in the course of the rescue operation, was taken to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Heart for therapy of acute hypothermia. He was launched later that day.
His attacker, who has since been recognized as 31-year-old Christopher Treadway of Mays Touchdown, was transported for medical therapy and admitted to a psychiatric unit for analysis. Police mentioned his habits appeared “according to a psychiatric episode.”
Treadway has been charged with aggravated assault with a lethal weapon, possession of a weapon for illegal functions, resisting arrest and obstruction.
Gitto, in the meantime, has been hailed a hero.
“This was a particularly harmful and unpredictable rescue,” mentioned Atlantic Metropolis Fireplace Chief Scott Evans. “Firefighter Gitto was sworn into the division only a few months in the past, and his actions demonstrated braveness, professionalism and private sacrifice.”
On social media, the union representing the Atlantic Metropolis firefighters wrote that “a life was positively saved” subsequent to a photograph of their dramatic rescue.
