Washington County Deputies Honored for Life-Saving Actions

The that battered the Twin Cities area over the weekend was a stark reminder of how dangerous Minnesota can be during winter.

At the Washington County Board meeting last week, three deputies were honored for saving the life of a man whose truck had broken through the ice of the St. Croix River in February.

Washington County Sheriff's Deputy Shane Linehan and Sgts. Tim Harris and Matt Wieland were honored Dec. 6 at the Minnesota Sheriffs' Association winter conference. Washington County Sheriff William Hutton nominated them for the award.

At Thursday's meeting, Commissioner Gary Kriesel said there must be no more rewarding thing as a law-enforcement officer than to save someone's life. Kriesel, a Stillwater resident, said knows the dangers of the river.

"You're putting your life on the line," he told the deputies.

The events of the early-morning rescue were recounted in Hutton's nomination.

It began at 3 a.m. Feb. 13 when local authorities received a transfer call from the St. Croix County, Wis., communications center. The caller said there was an individual calling for help from the St. Croix River. The caller was not able to give an exact location and had no further information.

Deputies Linehan and Harris, who was promoted after the event, at first had trouble finding the man. The deputies could hear him calling for help but could not see anyone in the river. They descended, by foot, from the river bluff to the river's edge and continued to call out to the man.

The deputies were able to make voice contact with the victim as he continued to call for help. The deputies had to run more than a half mile, and eventually found the victim in the water holding on to an ice ledge.

The victim had attempted to drive his vehicle from the Wisconsin side of the river into Minnesota. His vehicle broke through the ice, and the vehicle was completely submerged, but the man was  able to escape from the vehicle. 

It was 9 degrees outside, and the water was extremely cold. 

Linehan and Harris lay on their stomachs and formed a human chain to retrieve the victim. Wieland joined the chain as the deputies grabbed the victim. The deputies struggled to pull the victim onto the ice surface, but he was exhausted and not able to aid in his rescue.

Once the deputies were able to pull the victim out of the water and onto the ice surface, they laid on the ice exhausted. Then the ice around them began to crack around creating another potential disaster.  The deputies were able to pull the victim to the shoreline, where fire personnel gave care and transported the victim to the hospital.

The deputy and sergeants were honored for saving the victim in extreme weather conditions, and at great risk to their own lives.