Cape Coral police officer that saved a woman in a sinking car recalls incident

Reporter: Justin Kase Writer: Paul Dolan
Published: Updated:

A police officer in Cape Coral jumped into a canal and then busted a window open to get a woman out of her sinking car.

Officer Kwesi Johnson said it was just another day on the job, but he did admit he got very lucky when he was able to save the young woman from potentially drowning in the canal.

Officer Johnson said he got the call, but it wasn’t clear if someone was inside the car, so he rushed to the scene with his lights and sirens on.

It was dark, and there are canals on both sides of the street, so he had to guess which side the woman was on, and Officer Johnson guessed correctly.

“I just chose right, and I saw the ruffles in the water,” Officer Johnson said. “I was like, ‘ok, there’s a car in there.'”

Officer Johnson said the first thing he noticed when getting out of his car was the screams from the woman trapped inside her car.

“When I got there, I remember thinking, the first thing was, ‘I just got to get her out of that’. I wasn’t sure where my backup was, but my partner, officer Klakowicz, he’s amazing. He’s really good with that. So, the second he was there, I remember asking him for his baton. Everything was flustered. I already took my vest off, and I threw it down. I was like, I got to get her out of there… just by seeing how high the water already got. And her screams were just going and going. And so, it was just like a rapid-thinking situation,” Officer Johnson said.

The 23-year-old woman is ok, thanks to Officer Johnson.

“There’s a lot of splashing inside the car. That, along with the screaming, it just seemed like a timely manner. So, there wasn’t much thinking there,” Officer Johnson said. “I was just like, ‘I got to get in there and get her out.'”

And the officer had to get checked out at a local hospital after getting cuts and scratches from the broken glass and the sea wall.

“When I watch it, I’m like, it’s like, ‘I did that?’ It’s like a question mark. In the moment, there isn’t much thinking, to be honest,” Officer Johnson said. “I was just like, ‘I got to get her.’ And then watching that back and seeing all the posts and stuff, it’s really surreal.

Police are still investigating what led to the woman crashing into the canal.

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