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Saturday, May 27, 2000

Five honored for lifesaving heroism
Boy and woman saved from drowning; driver coaxed off Harbor Bridge
By Dan Parker
Caller-Times

George Tuley/Caller-Times

Corpus Christi Police Chief Pete Alvarez honored (from left) Eliud Barrera, Thomas Haney, Sally and Larry Harmsen (holding the boy he saved) and Senior Officer Sergio Ramirez.

Two grabbed a distraught man standing on the edge of the Harbor Bridge and pulled him to safety July 18, 1999.
   Two saved a little boy from drowning in a Padre Island canal May 20.
   One helped rescue a woman who had been pushed into the frigid waters of Corpus Christi Bay on Jan 18.
   Heroes, all of them, said Corpus Christi Police Chief Pete Alvarez.
   Friday, Alvarez presented framed certificates to Larry and Sally Harmsen, Eliud Barrera, Thomas Haney and Senior Officer Sergio Ramirez of the Corpus Christi Police Department to recognize their good work.
   "I think what these people have in common is they are dedicated to the common good," Alvarez said.
   "There are good deeds that a lot of times go unnoticed," Alvarez said. "When we do find out about them, we need to make an effort to recognize them."
   Thomas Haney, a 38-year-old security officer at the Corpus Christi Marina, was stepping out of his patrol truck on the Peoples Street T-Head about 1:30 a.m. Jan. 18 when he heard a woman crying for help.
   Haney shined a flashlight in the water next to a shrimp boat and saw a woman in the frigid water, bracing herself between the boat and a piling. She said a man had thrown her off the boat and left her.
   The water's surface was too far below the dock for Haney to pull the woman up. So he lay down on the dock, grabbed the woman's wrist and held on. With his free hand, he radioed police for help.
   "I talked to her and tried to keep her from going into shock, because she was pretty hysterical," Haney said.
   The woman told Haney she thought she was going to die.
   "I just told her, 'I'm not going to let that happen to you,'_" Haney said.
   Haney held the woman until police arrived and helped him pull her up. She was taken by ambulance to a hospital. Police later told him the woman nearly died at the hospital but that she recovered.
   Police caught a suspect and arrested him that night, Haney said.
   "It felt good that I had saved her from drowning or going into shock," Haney said. "I just felt really good I was out there at the right time."
   Bridge rescue
   When Senior Officer Sergio Ramirez tried to stop a suspected drunken driver July 18, the traffic stop turned out to be anything but routine.
   Ramirez stopped a Chevrolet El Camino on South Padre Island Drive at Kostoryz Road, but the vehicle suddenly took off. Ramirez pursued the man for miles.
   "We got right to the top of the Harbor Bridge, and he slams on the brakes," Ramirez said. "You could see smoke coming out of his tires."
   The driver jumped out of his idling car, which rolled into a concrete barrier, and he ran to the edge of the bridge. He stuck one leg over a guardrail.
   The water lay 170 feet below.
   Ramirez jumped out of his patrol car and ran after the man. Ramirez's 28-year-old brother-in-law, Eliud Barrera of Mission, happened to be riding along with Ramirez in the patrol car that day. He got out and chased the man, too.
   Ramirez and Barrera grabbed the driver and pulled him from the edge of the bridge. The distraught man later was taken to a mental hospital, Ramirez said.
   "Afterward, you kind of realize that no traffic stop really is routine," said Ramirez, 30. "We never know what people are going to do. But I'm thinking this one came out pretty well."
   Child saved
   On May 20, Sally Harmsen was standing at the rear of her Padre Island home looking at the canal at the edge of her property when she saw two children and a dog on the other side playing near the water's edge.
   Worried, she called her husband, Larry, to her side.
   Moments later, one of the children fell into the canal. Margarito Luna Jr., 5, could not swim. He thrashed around and slipped beneath the surface.
   Larry took out both his hearing aids, jumped in, swam about 50 feet to Margarito, grabbed him and brought him to shore.
   The child swallowed a lot of water and was hospitalized, but he recovered.
   Larry said he reacted automatically when he saw Margarito struggling in the water.
   "It just happened so fast," said Larry, a 60-year-old retiree who moved to Padre Island from Rockford, Ill., just a month ago. "Your only thought is to get to the kid and get him out of the water."
   Margarito and his family attended the Harmsens' award presentation. Seeing the grinning little boy seated in a relative's lap reminded the Harmsens how glad they were that they were able to save the child.
   "He's just a beautiful little boy," Larry said. "Just so full of life."



Staff writer Dan Parker can be reached at _886-3774 or by e-mail at parkerd@caller.com

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