BY JULIA MARNIN
Published: June 24, 2024
-Miami Herald
A police officer found a father trying to drown his two children at a Connecticut beach and waded into the water to rescue them, authorities said. The officer heard screams from the water after noticing a car parked on the beach around 2:31 a.m on June 22 in West Haven, which is located along the Long Island Sound, according to the West Haven Police Department.
That’s when the officer saw the father “deliberately drowning his children” and entered the ocean with other officers as the man screamed at them “to ‘stay back,’” the department said in a June 22 news release.
At this point, the father and children had drifted nearly 300 feet offshore, according to police.
The officer who first heard the screams grabbed the children and brought them back to the beach with the help of other officers, members of the West Shore Fire Department and a fire boat, police said.
Following life saving measures, the children were taken to a nearby hospital in an ambulance, according to authorities. They were admitted to the ICU, police said. The father, 41, of Queens, New York, was taken into custody by the West Haven Police Department, according to the release.
“Charges for this heinous act are pending,” police said.
McClatchy News is not identifying the man to protect the identity of the minors. Information regarding his legal representation wasn’t immediately available.
The father will likely be charged with two counts of attempted murder and two counts of risk of injury, Police Chief Joseph Perno said at a news conference, the New Haven Register reported.
The children, who are younger than 3, were in critical condition at the time of the conference but seemed to be recovering, Perna said, according to the newspaper.
“It is without a doubt the swift response by our patrol officers saved the lives of these children,” police said.
