Minneapolis police award Medal of Valor to officers for water rescue

Two Minneapolis police officers were awarded the MPD Medal of Valor on Tuesday for saving a young boy’s life last year.

Sgt. Jeremy Depies and Officer Ashley Bergersen were both working on Sunday, Nov. 26 when a call came in that a young child had fallen through the ice.

“I didn’t think it was real at first,” said Bergersen, who was working as a field training officer that day.

She rushed to Bryn Mawr Meadows Park, where Sgt. Depies was already running towards the water. He’d been doing a ride-along, showing a civilian city parks, when he got the call.

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“I was in the right place at the right time and just arrived on scene at the moment I needed to be there,” he said.

Depies told us he arrived to the scene within 30 seconds, where a little girl told him her brother was in the water.

“I went down to the ice, ran down there and I saw his snow pants sticking up out of the water,” he said. “I knew he was in there longer than he’d ever be able to hold his breath.”

Depies ran into the water with Bergersen right behind him.

“I told myself to feel light as a feather on that ice because I could see that the ice was not thick at all, might have been an inch, if that,” she said. “I just ran as fast and as far as I could to the hole to get Eli.”

Bergersen added, “[I thought] we gotta get him out now or he’s not going to survive.”

Instinct took over for both of them.

“This isn’t anything that either one of us has been trained to do,” said Depies. “In that moment, it didn’t matter, I had to figure out a way to get Eli out of the water.”

Bergersen carried the little boy out of the water and handed him off to her partner, who raced him to the pavement. They started CPR and called for an ambulance.

Bergersen went with the four-year-old to the hospital, where she met his mother.

“The first thing I did when I saw her was I knelt down next to her and gave her a hug,” she said.

After speaking with the child’s mother, she determined he’d been in the water for about six minutes before they arrived.

The four-year-old survived and met his heroes in the weeks that followed.

“Eli’s a fun-loving kid and super great to spend time with,” said Depies

“Amazing to see him walking and talking now, it’s surreal,” said Bergersen. “I am glad that I was working that day, that I was able to respond to that specific call and that I had enough courage to jump into that pond. It was an instinct. I just thought if that was my son, I sure hope someone would go in and save them.”