KEY WEST POLICE RESCUE 76-YEAR-OLD WOMAN FROM HARBOR

For the second time since April, Key West police officers dove into Key West Harbor to rescue a person.

Officers were sent to the end of Duval Street a little before dawn on June 22. The caller said he heard an individual in the ocean crying out for help.

When officers arrived, they could see a small, older woman struggling to hold her head out of the water, clinging to a rope behind a water sports catamaran.

The woman seemed weak and disoriented and was unable to climb up on the boat, so two officers removed their duty belts, secured them with another officer, and jumped into the water. The woman, who was speaking Creole, was able to tell the officers “no swim, no swim,” so they guided her safely to the boat’s ladder and helped her on board. Because the boat was tied a distance off the dock, officers on land pulled the boat to the dock. Rescue was waiting, and one of the officers carried the woman to the stretcher.

The woman was transported to Lower Keys Medical Center.

Later in the day, police received a call that the same 76-year old woman was missing from a home where she was staying with family. Police discovered that she is a dementia patient and speaks only Creole. She was found and returned to the hospital for care.

In April, three Key West police officers jumped into the water to save a man who drove a car into the harbor at Simonton Beach.