CONSTABLE HONOURED

Kris Lauzon saved man

Const. Kris Lauzon didn’t hesitate even though he could have drowned.

The Windsor police officer stripped to his boxer shorts and dove into the Detroit River — cold water and strong current be damned — to reach a man sinking below the surface about 15 metres out around McKay Avenue.

Add that the 55-year-old man was suicidal and unco-operative and Lauzon’s effort proved all the more dangerous. The man was already refusing help from a couple aboard a nearby personal water craft.

“You could see in his swimming that he was struggling,” Lauzon recalled Thursday, after being awarded a Governor General’s Commendation for the daring rescue which started around 7:30 p.m. on June 23, 2015.

“He was going under water and coming back up. But you could also see he didn’t want help from the people on the Sea-Doo and was trying to end his life.”

The cop had quickly worked out a plan with fellow officer Trevor Snyder. Lauzon would swim out with a life ring, and Snyder would help pull them both back in — providing the man could be corralled.

“It worked out excellent,” Lauzon said. “He was facing away from me so I was able to just come up and get a good hold of him over his shoulder and under his armpit.

“It was difficult. I was just trying to maintain a hold of him. I was holding on with everything I had. The adrenalin was going.”

More officers had arrived and as a team they reeled in Lauzon and the drowning man in. But amid the ordeal, Lauzon lost grip of the life ring about five metres from land.

“We were so close to the shore,” Lauzon recalled. “I dipped under water. When I came back up I saw another life ring had been thrown out to us. So I was able to grab it right away. And I thought, ‘I’m not letting go this time.’”

When they reached the wall, fellow officers grabbed the man and pulled him to safety.

“It was just one of those crazy calls,” said the 37-year-old father of two, who is married to OPP Const. Jackie Lauzon. “It was pretty intense.”

On Thursday, Windsor police Chief Al Frederick presented the hero with an official commendation from Gov.-Gen. David Johnston.

“Incredible,” Frederick said after reading details of the dramatic rescue. “You make us all proud.”

Lauzon said he felt humbled to receive the award. But he considered the rescue a group effort.

“It’s a tremendous feeling,” Lauzon said. “But it was a whole team that day. ”