Warning: Photos and body camera footage show CPR being performed on a non-responsive infant. Viewer discretion is advised.
Responding to a call of a drowning infant, a Florida police officer ran from her squad car to a pond at an apartment complex and, despite not being able to swim, plunged into the water. Thanks to the officer’s courage, the baby survived.
Jacksonville Patrol Officer Me'Atia Sanderson was on duty in Jacksonville’s Westside on June 9 when emergency services received a 911 call from the Madelyn Oaks Apartments complex. Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department (JFRD) crews were dispatched, but Sanderson was the first to arrive at the scene.
She darted from her cruiser to the pond, located within the complex, and was told by a distraught bystander that the baby was underwater as they spoke.
Body camera footage shows a bystander pointing into the pond at the Madelyn Oaks Apartments where an infant was submerged and drowning on June 9, 2022. (Courtesy of Jacksonville Sheriff's Office)
Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) later posted on Facebook that Sanderson, who can’t swim, entered the water to retrieve the infant “without a second’s hesitation.” Her body camera recorded the incident and was submerged underwater for almost 30 seconds before Sanderson pulled the baby from the pond and onto the bank. She was assisted by a maintenance person who had rushed in to help.
Sanderson immediately began CPR, administering chest compressions until EMTs arrived and took over. The harrowing body camera footage shows the officer pleading with the infant. “Come on baby, come on baby,” she is heard uttering, as she works to save his life.
A resident who witnessed the rescue told News4JAX, “She was able to give the baby to the maintenance guy, and now she’s trying to help herself get out of there because she’s got on her safety gear, her duty belt ... she did an amazing job.”
Body camera footage shows Sanderson performing CPR on the unconscious child after being pulled from a pond on June 9, 2022. (Courtesy of Jacksonville Sheriff's Office)
The baby and an older child had allegedly been under the supervision of a teen playing nearby.
Sanderson, who joined JSO in March 2019, was commended in a letter from JFRD Captain Christopher Scott to her department. He emphasized her selflessness, and the impact her “quick and decisive decision to go into the retention pond” had made in potentially saving a life.
Marking its “Week of Thanks,” JSO highlighted the June incident and Sanderson’s actions as an example. They wrote on Facebook, “We at the #JSO are thankful that we have officers like Ofc. Sanderson, who, day in and day out, take on the challenges and dangers of this job. Our community would not be what it is without them.”
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