Aurora police officers, neighbor honored for rescuing boy, woman from frozen pond
AURORA, Ill. (CBS) -- Six police officers and a neighbor in west suburban Aurora were honored Tuesday night for saving a 9-year-old boy from drowning in a frozen pond.
Tyshaun LaFlore was trying to retrieve his football from the pond at the Fox Pointe apartment complex on the day before Thanksgiving, when he fell through the ice.
Aurora Police Officer Andrew Soderlund and his partner rescued both LaFlore and a neighbor who went in after the boy. Soderlund tied a rope around his waist and dove into the dangerously cold and deep water to get to them.
"They were pretty far out there - and obviously, they weren't making any way of getting closer to the shore," Soderlund said last month. "That adrenaline dump that goes on in a situation like that - I don't remember the cold at all."
An award ceremony was held Tuesday at Aurora City Hall, honoring Soderlund and five other officers -- as well as that neighbor who went in after LaFlore, Shannon O'Neal.
O'Neal explained how she heard the commotion and kept the boy afloat until police arrived.
"I just took off running. As I'm running, I'm like my shoes are falling off and stuff like that – and I get there, it's a whole bunch of kids, and you just see the fear in their eyes," O'Neal said. "I just jumped in, and when I got in the water I just told him, 'Hold onto me – it's going to be okay.'"
Aurora's police chief said O'Neal's bravery and the officers' teamwork turned what could have been a tragedy into a beautiful story.