By Greg Swiercz
South Bend Tribune
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — A South Bend police patrolman dove into the St. Joseph River in full gear late Friday afternoon to save a 5-year-old boy from drowning near Howard Park.
The boy, 5-year-old Xavier Willard, was with his mother, Nicole Willard, as they were going to his music therapy session at Behavior & Services Therapy Inc. at 912 E. LaSalle Ave., when Xavier ran off. Xavier has a form of autism, Nicole Willard said.
Nicole said she ran to catch Xavier, but she also had her 3-month-old child with her and Xavier got away. She said a passer-by named Jon called police while another person named Tyler watched her child as she continued to run after Xavier.
Meanwhile, Patrolman Reid Spitaels answered a call of a missing 5-year-old about 5 p.m. and was heading there when the dispatchers updated the call to a boy seen in the St. Joseph River there, some 200 yards up stream from the dam at Century Center.
Once getting to the park scene, Spitaels said he and other officers saw the boy with hands waving as he struggled to stay afloat. Spitaels said the department has safety flotation devices to use in these types of cases, but there was little time to act as he said he saw the boy struggling in the water.
Spitaels said he jumped in and swam more than 50 feet to reach the boy. He grabbed him and swam back, adding that he could feel the weight of the gear he was wearing.
When asked whether he ever had a rescue attempt like this before, he said, “This is the first time I swam in the water with a bunch of gear on.”
The boy was taken by paramedics to a local hospital, but he did not appear to have been injured seriously in the incident.
Nicole said she is relieved of the outcome of the ordeal. “I am thankful that there are a lot of good people in this world,” she said Friday night.
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