A woman was hospitalized last week after two Dallas police officers pulled her from her car after it had been submerged in Lake Bachman near Dallas Love Field.
While responding to a separate call in the 2900 block of Shorecrest Drive, officers spotted a car sinking into the lake.
Sergeants Paul Kessenich and Matt Carlson from DPD’s Northwest Patrol Division dove into the water and swam over to the vehicle as another officer waited on the dock. Footage from his body cam, dated around 3:20 a.m. on July 3, captured the intervention.
“We could actually hear some screaming, but it was muffled because she was underneath the water,” Carlson told Fox 4 in an interview.
“We stripped our gear pretty quick. And when we dove in, we got her at the car,” Kessenich told Fox 4.
They managed to reach the woman just as the trunk of her car was hovering above the water line.
The woman was unconscious and not breathing as they swam her to safety and pulled her onto the dock.
As luck would have it, Kessenich, who also serves as a sergeant for the dive team, had recently completed a CPR refresher course.
He administered CPR to the woman, and she was revived. Arriving on the scene, Dallas Fire-Rescue later transported her to Parkland Health, where she is said to have made a full recovery.
The two officers marveled at the coincidence of the incident happening just a stone’s throw away from where they had received another emergency call.
“I just happened to be in a parking lot right there off Shorecrest. So it was, not to be too religious, but a lot of God’s saving hand for the fact that what are the chances for the sergeant of the dive team, Paul, being the guy who was like 60 seconds away from her,” Carlson told Fox 4.
In 2020, one person died while another was rescued by Dallas police when a car drove into the lake at Old Rochester Park in South Dallas.
The driver, Shekendra Drake, was later charged with intoxication manslaughter for the death of Andre Chandler, her passenger.
