Dramatic body camera video shows two Florida deputies rescuing a 4-year-old boy with autism who found himself dangerously floating in a pond.
The incident happened Tuesday morning when Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to a call of a child seen running across a street and into a pond.
Two deputies, a man and a woman, arrived and immediately began searching for the boy.
"Right here on the edge of the water. You see his head? He's just sitting right there on the edge of the water," the female deputy says in the footage.
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Officials said the boy was being kept afloat by shrubs on the edge of the pond, making the situation more dire.
"I'm gonna get soaked, I'm gonna go get him," the male deputy says.
"I don't know how he got over there," the female deputy responds.
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The footage shows the deputies making their way through the tall grass and weeds before rescuing the boy, who was wearing nothing but a diaper.
"I'm sinking in the dirt," the male deputy says before handing the boy to the other deputy.
The deputies discovered that that the boy was also nonverbal after rescuing him.
"I just kept sinking and sinking, I'm like, I don't know how deep this is gonna get," the female deputy said once all three were safe.
"I could barely hold him, because my feet were sinking so deep," the male deputy responds. "Would have been a bad day."
The boy wasn't injured and was reunited with his family.
"I shudder to think of the outcome if not for the tenacity and efforts of these deputies," Hillsborough Sheriff Chad Chronister said. "We will now work with the Department of Children and Families to determine if negligence played a role in this young boy's disappearance."
