Evanston officials tonight commended an off-duty police officer who pulled a young child out of the Des Plaines River last week.
During a brief ceremony before the weekly meeting of Evanston aldermen, Police Chief Richard Eddington said four-year cop Sean O’Brien saved a 7-year-old boy’s life by diving into the frigid water Tuesday afternoon.
“Sean, not only are you a hero, but you also are well aware of things going around you which most of us don’t pay that much attention to,” Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl said. “Congratulations for being an absolute shining example of the best in the Evanston Police Department.”
Minutes before the heroic rescue, O’Brien was driving home with his girlfriend when he noticed the boy wandering in the busy intersection near the river, according to authorities. When O’Brien got out of his car to investigate, he saw the boy pack some snow together, throw a snowball toward the river and jump in to retrieve it.
O’Brien, 26, said he didn’t think twice about following the boy and scooping him out of the river, which is about 10 miles west of Evanston.
“If someone is in trouble, you just react,” he said before two dozen colleagues and family members Monday night at the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center.
The boy had escaped his grandmother’s sight before running to the intersection from his home about a block away, according to the Des Plaines Fire Department. He was reunited with his mother shortly after emergency officials rushed to the scene.
The split-second decision was not the first time O’Brien earned public recognition for his bravery. In 2009, he received a medal of valor for pulling a co-worker out of a burning car in Chicago.
“To have saved two people this early in a police career is amazing,” Eddington said.
O’Brien told The Daily that the boy’s mother called him the night after the heroic rescue and explained her son was autistic and could not swim. The two families plan to meet for coffee this week.
— Patrick Svitek
