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Three Columbus Police Officers Talk About Icy Pond Rescue

Updated: Friday, February 8 2013, 11:55 PM EST
COLUMBUS -- Three police officers share their harrowing ordeal during an icy pond rescue where a man drowned trying to save a little boy.

Columbus police officers Christopher Smith-Hughes, Logan Ramsier, and Christoper Lieb all jumped into the frigid water Thursday evening.

They were trying to save 30 year old James Russell Jenkins who had first ran into the apartment complex pond in southeast Columbus to rescue a five year old boy who'd fallen in.

"He was actually underneath the child you could see the child going up," said Smith-Hughes about Jenkins, who the officers call a hero.

But the officers say the water was so cold it was hard for them to do much of anything.

"You start to freeze up you can't really breath," said Lieb.

Lieb says at one point he tried to hop on a ladder fire crews had pushed onto the ice but fell into the water.

The officers say they're praying for Jenkins' family and the little boy hoping he'll pull through.

The child remains in critical condition.

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Reporter: Tara Morgan    

Three Columbus Police Officers Talk About Icy Pond Rescue