Texas Man Arrested After Heroic Rescue- Opinions?

Posted by: JoelM

Texas Man Arrested After Heroic Rescue- Opinions? - 07/05/05 11:18 AM

Quote:

SAN MARCOS, Texas - A man who rescued a swimmer caught in swirling river currents found himself in trouble soon afterward when he was arrested by authorities who claimed he was interfering.

Dave Newman, 48, disobeyed repeated orders by emergency personnel to leave the water, police said. He was charged with interfering with public duties.

"I was amazed," Newman said Monday after his release on $2,000 bail. "I had a very uncomfortable night after saving that guy's life. He thanked me for it in front of the police, and then they took me to jail."

Abed Duamni, 35, of Houston, said he had just finished eating at a restaurant Sunday when he decided to go for a swim in a nearby river. Duamni said he didn't see any signs warning swimmers of dangerous currents.

Newman said he pulled Duamni out of the water, swimming under a waterfall and over to the shore opposite from the restaurant. He could hear law enforcement personnel telling him to come back to the other side.

According to police, Newman smirked and seemed annoyed by officers' requests. He stood in the water for about 15 seconds before swimming downstream.

"When he came across the river, the officer stuck out his hand like he's going to help him out of the water, and he put cuffs on him," said John Parnell, pastor of St. Augustine Old Roman Catholic Church in Fort Worth.




Not trying to start anything, just want to ge some opinions on this, especially from law enforcement and emergency persons. I know we don't have all of the facts, but anything constructive would be nice.
Posted by: Cord

Re: Texas Man Arrested After Heroic Rescue- Opinions? - 07/05/05 12:00 PM

Once emergency services are on the scene, they call the shots. At what point does bravery/heroism become an ego trip?
If a cop tells you things are in hand, you stay out of it. I was a lifeguard for 5 years, and can tell you that well meaning, yet untrained people are a pain in the a$$ when dealing with an emergency. If he too had run in to difficulty that would have doubled the emergency services work and personal risk- not cool.
I would say however, that the local police PR officer will have sweaty palms over this. I would have though an official caution would have put the point across, without any backlash of opinion.
Posted by: Fletch1

Re: Texas Man Arrested After Heroic Rescue- Opinions? - 07/05/05 12:01 PM

Not sure. Sounds like he pi$$ed someone off. He makes it sound like he was going for a leisurely swim. The presence of rescue personnel makes it sound like a flood water emergency.

Had the guy gotten stuck himself, they would have had to compromise their efforts in order to save both of them. That's the only reason I can see to penalize him. Either way, based on the results, it makes the authorities look bad in the end.

I still can't figure out the "just going for a swim" thing.

I can tell you that if I am at the scene of a house fire and the firefighters are going in, and some idiot decides to be a hero and run inside while the fire fighters are doing their job, he's going to be in trouble.
Posted by: ziggytkd

Re: Texas Man Arrested After Heroic Rescue- Opinions? - 07/05/05 04:41 PM

As a member of the law enforcement community and the emergency services community both, I'd have to say this story doesn't add up. If he was a bystander that started to help before rescue units were on scene is one thing, but if he interefered while there were already starting a rescue the police did the right thing. Without knowing all the details I'd hate to say what should have happened.
Posted by: hunterkell

Re: Texas Man Arrested After Heroic Rescue- Opinions? - 07/07/05 08:52 AM

as a leo, former firefighter/emt, i agree with what zigg said. i also think you can never trust the newspaper and other media outlets to tell the truth (except from their perspective). i have found that rhetoric from the media tends to follow closely with their political alignment.
kel
Posted by: glad2bhere

Re: Texas Man Arrested After Heroic Rescue- Opinions? - 07/07/05 12:59 PM

Sounds like a set-up or a stunt of some sort. Like one of those situations that gets provked and someone just "happens" to be standing around with a cam-corder.

Best Wishes,

Bruce
Posted by: JoelM

Re: Texas Man Arrested After Heroic Rescue- Opinions? - 07/07/05 01:15 PM

Conspiracy theory anyone??

Good grief, is there anything that's not a set-up or gimmick, Bruce?
Posted by: glad2bhere

Re: Texas Man Arrested After Heroic Rescue- Opinions? - 07/07/05 03:51 PM

Dear Joel:

Most of the other questions about this scenerio have been raised by other. All I would add is had a service person such as one of those LEO-s or EMT-s been lost, people would have wanted some answers about what this guy had been doing in the water. And had the guy himself been lost, the Leo-s and EMT-s would have been on the hot seat about why they had not done more and people would have still wondered (perhaps more sympathetically) what this recently-deceased fool had been doing in the water. Now, we have the swimmer safe, the service personnel have arrested some intrusive "Good Samaritan" and I still would like to know what kind of nut goes swimming after eating/drinking, in turbulent waters, with Service people standing there? FWIW.

Best Wishes,

Bruce
Posted by: nekogami13 V2.0

Re: Texas Man Arrested After Heroic Rescue- Opinio - 07/07/05 08:10 PM

The area in question is a dangerous area, several people have drowned.
The University who owned the land had fences erected and no swimming signs posted.

The jackass who was arrested led the fight to have the fences and signs removed.
Posted by: BuDoc

Re: Texas Man Arrested After Heroic Rescue- Opinio - 07/12/05 07:20 AM

Does anyone here see any parallels to the other thread on the "talk" about obligation to stop terrorists or muggers?

Just because you think you can do something, doesn't mean you should. Sometimes you hinder the situation with your good intentions!

Page
Posted by: oldman

Re: Texas Man Arrested After Heroic Rescue- Opinio - 07/12/05 07:58 AM

The sage does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Posted by: Iamdadude

Re: Texas Man Arrested After Heroic Rescue- Opinio - 07/12/05 11:12 AM

The police told him to stay out of it, and that should have been good enough.
Posted by: Bushi_no_ki

Re: Texas Man Arrested After Heroic Rescue- Opinio - 08/08/05 06:22 AM

Regardless of the particulars of the situation, if the guy wasn't in the water before EMS arrived, he had no business going into the water. EMS personnel are well trained to handle these situations, and intrusions only cause problems.