Posted on 07/10/2012 7:08:07 AM PDT by kevcol
Quick action by horrified guests at a Park Ridge hotel saved a 20-month-old boy who had been thrown into a pool by a man police said was high on drugs.
“These good Samaritans are heroes,” Capt. Joseph Rampolla of the Park Ridge Police Department said Monday. “They would be planning a toddler’s funeral if they did not step up.”
The boy, who was unconscious and turning blue when he was pulled from the water, was recovering Monday at Hackensack University Medical Center, where he is in his mother’s custody, police said.
“The child is doing well,” Rampolla said.
Debbi Katcher, a 55-year-old swim instructor from Rockaway, was at the outdoor pool Sunday afternoon giving swimming lessons when she sprang into action to perform CPR on the boy.
“You don’t even think,” she said. “I saw something wrong, and I just went, and I absolutely would do this again in a minute, especially with a baby.”
Peter J. Clark, 32, of Bogota, the man accused of throwing the child into the pool, was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a child, aggravated assault and several drug charges, police said. Prescription pain medication was found in the boy’s stroller at poolside, Rampolla said.
Police referred to Clark as a babysitter, but declined to comment on his relationship to the child.
(Excerpt) Read more at northjersey.com ...
It seems like they milled around for quite a while trying to reason with the guy, when fishing the child out of the water was in order.
Indeed. The plague of abuse on children, today. Almost all of it at the hands of “mommy’s boyfriend.”
Trash comes in all colors and forms. What a smarmy looking POS.
Once upon a time I decided I was too judgmental and that I was going to give people more of a chance to prove themselves good or bad. We went swimming at the beach one late summer day. The parking lot was up on the hill and there is a trail to the beach. While we were going down the trail we met a group of three that looked about like this POS and they were headed for the parking lot, not far behind us. My gut told me to go back and wait until they left. My heart and my head told to give them a chance and not be judgmental.
I didn’t enjoy the time swimming because I had a feeling something bad had happened. Sure enough, we got back to the truck and all the stuff we had left under the seat; watches, billfolds etc. were gone. Both windows were broken.
Listen to your gut. We are given senses for a reason. We are wired to detect danger. The consequences of failing to listen don’t hurt anyone but you. If your senses are wrong and hasty in judgement you can apologize if it suits you. If your senses are not wrong and something bad happens it is too late for you and yours. Listen to your gut.
I can't go in the water at the oceanfront. Somebody’s gotta watch our stuff. On the base we know everyone is military and the criminal riff-raff can't get there. You are fairly safe.
Also, if we go to the oceanfront, we have to pay for parking if we can find it, walk multiple blocks to get to an overcrowded beach, and again, you can't trust anybody.
At Dam Neck the parking lot is right there, you just walk over the dune, and there you are. It's a little further to drive, but it's well worth it. And the surf is better for boogie boarding.
The only appropriate thing to do with this guy is drop him into a 20 ft deep vertical smooth wall hole that is filled to the 10 ft mark with water.
Prescription pain medication was found in the boy’s stroller at poolside, Rampolla said. >>
drug addict, that says it all.
A baby on painkillers is likely to do anything.
Park Ridge, that’s where president nixon lived.
The phrase “the mother’s boyfriend” shows up in way too many cases of shaken baby syndrome and homicide of children. I place a lot of the blame on the woman for being a bad judge of character and trusting her kids to someone she doesn’t really know.
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