Police Personnel Honored For Off-Duty Heroism
Tuesday, May 28th, 2024
After a three year old child jumped into a frigid swimming pool last March, two current and one former Dalton Police Department employees came to the rescue. On Tuesday, all three were honored for their off-duty actions at the monthly meeting of Dalton's Public Safety Commission.
The incident happened on March 24th at an Easter egg hunt at a private home. During the celebration, a three year old child from a neighboring home wandered into a gated swimming pool on the property without being noticed. The child took off his shoes and clothes and jumped into the pool to try to swim, but was unable. Bruce Franks, a former DPD officer who is now a police officer at Georgia Northwestern Technical College, saw the boy in distress and immediately jumped into the pool to pull him out. Once the boy was out, DPD Detective Matthew Kumnick began to administer CPR with a nurse who was also at the party. The boy did not have a pulse and was not breathing. While this was going on, Bernice Kumnick, a property and evidence technician at the police department, worked to gather the children and remove them from the scene to allow the first responders space to work and to try to shield other children from seeing the scene. After a few minutes of providing chest compressions, the boy began to respond and started to cry. Detective Kumnick kept working until medical help arrived. The boy eventually made a full recovery.
Caption: Assistant Police Chief Chris Crossen (from left to right) presented the Dalton Police Department's Life-Saving Award to former DPD Officer Bruce Franks, Detective Matthew Kumnick, and Property and Evidence Technician Bernice Kumnick
"It’s such a blessing for these folks to be nearby, and that there’s a good outcome of all of this," Assistant Chief Chris Crossen said Tuesday. "The young man was able to recover and is doing well."
For their actions, Detective Kumnick and Officer Franks were both presented the Dalton Police Department's Life-Saving Award, which is presented to employees or community members for taking actions which directly resulted in the preservation of human life. Bernice Kumnick was given a letter of commendation from Chief Cliff Cason praising her for her actions to keep the scene clear and calm and to help other children who were at the scene.
"(I thank) them for their actions and their willingness to step into a situation that was life-threatening not only for that child, but if you think about jumping into a cold pool in March, that sort of thing could be bad for everybody," said Chief Crossen.
