Off-duty officer tries to save man in Red River, but unsuccessful
CBC News | Posted: August 15, 2014 9:48 PM | Last Updated: August 16, 2014
As water taxi directed to location of victim, its captain suffers heart attack
A dramatic rescue attempt on the Red River Friday afternoon ended with one man feared drowned and another sent to hospital with a heart attack.
An off-duty Winnipeg police officer spotted a man in the Red River around 2 p.m. who appeared to be in distress.
The officer got the attention of a water taxi service, Splash Dash Boat Tours, and directed it to the man's location.
But they were unable to save him.
Dive crews tried to locate the man to no avail.
But it wasn't the only emergency.
Gord Cartwright, owner of Splash Dash Boat Tours, said his boat captain had a heart attack while trying to pull the man from the water.
"One of my boat captains was responding to a person that was drowning just off the bridge," he said. "We don't know whether he jumped in or was swimming across the river. During the rescue my boat captain had a heart attack."
He said they called for help right away.
"The river patrol was very close by and they came to the boat, and took the boat over to the Alexander dock where an ambulance came by and picked up my boat captain and took him to the St.Boniface hospital, right now he's doing okay."