Hometown heroes
Hear the audio: Houston police officers recount daring rescue of woman whose carcrashed into Buffalo Bayou
Left to right: officer Bennie Escamilla, sergeant Rene Calderon,officer Jonathan Penn, and officer Ricardo Ramirez
The four HPD officers pulled Davis from the muddy bayou Wednesday around 4 p.m.Photo by Tyler Rudick
Lucerda Arvannette Davis, 41, currently remains in the hospital after her car broke through the guardrails at Commerce and Milam on Wednesday and dropped 30 feet into Buffalo Bayou. The Houston Police Department confirmed she was responsive and conscious as of Friday morning.
Four HPD officers — all working an approved private security job at a nearby building — were at the scene soon after the accident occurred. Two officers jumped into the muddy water to pull Davis to safety and search for possible additional passengers. The two officers on shore performed CPR and brought the women back to life.
On Friday, the HPD media relations department released a recorded interview with Sgt. Rene Calderon and officers Bennie Escamilla, Jonathan Penn and Ricardo Ramirez, who recounted the story of their rescue efforts.
Hear the officers recount the rescue:
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"We heard a big crash and someone yelled the car was in the bayou," recalled Escamilla. "We all ran to the location, jumped over the rail, ran down to the water."
"We didn't have a lot of time to gather our thoughts and training just takes over," Calderon said. "The department does a good job of getting us ready for circumstances like this to make quick decisions, decisions that you have to live with and justify later."
"There's about a 10- or 15-foot drop and someone was yelling that she was in the water face down," he said. Unable to see Davis through the thick brush along the bayou, Calderon and Ramirez jumped into the water and moved her to the bank.
"I knew she wasn't going to be good," noted Penn, who helped pull Davis out of the water with Escamilla. "She was face down in the water for so long."
At first, Penn and Escamilla were unable to get a response or locate an active pulse and immediately started CPR. She soon began to cough and resumed breathing.
"We didn't have a lot of time to gather our thoughts and training just takes over," Calderon said. "The department does a good job of getting us ready for circumstances like this to make quick decisions, decisions that you have to live with and justify later."
"It's all about teamwork," said Ramirez. "It came naturally and we did what we had to do as first responders... Just a day's work."
HPD offered no futher details as to the cause of the Davis' accident. Its Vehicular Crimes Division is currently investigating the incident.
