Source New Haven Register, Conn.
WEST HAVEN, CT — It made national news when two West Haven police officers rescued toddler twins from an attempted drowning last month, but Police Chief Joseph Perno challenged a crowd in West Haven High School's auditorium Tuesday evening to truly imagine what the incident was like for the officers.
Perno encouraged the over 100 people gathered to honor over two dozen police officers, firefighters and dispatchers for their actions to think about the experience. Perno asked the crowd how they might feel discovering something amiss like an SUV on the sand at 2:30 a.m., hearing children's screams, jumping into pitch black water up to your neck and swimming the length of a football field — leaving your belt and much of your equipment on the shore as you swim toward the unknown.
"You and your backup officer are the children's only hope for survival," he said.
The city bestowed four commendations Tuesday for first responders who worked as a unit to save lives in the early morning of June 22. Five officers — Officers Ian Williamson, Makiem Miller, Rozimara Ramos and James Roldan, and Sgt. Scott Bloom — received a Life Saving Award for their efforts in rescuing and providing first aid to the children. Miller and Williamson also each received a Medal of Merit for demonstrating "exceptional heroism in the performance of duty" as the first on the scene.
The partners were completing their duties overseeing the nightly closure of city bars around 2:30 a.m. on June 22, police said, when they noticed a Nissan Rogue trapped in the sand and followed the sound of screaming in the water of Dawson Avenue Beach.
Police have said Romney Desronvil, 41, of Queens, took the children from their home and, instead of dropping them off with a relative in Connecticut, brought them to West Haven's beach. He was in a relationship with the twins' mother.
Officers jumped into the water as Desronvil waded some 100 yards from shore, officials said, where police apprehended Desronvil and placed him on a boat. Then, along with responding fire officials, they created a human chain to grab the children and bring them to shore, officials said.
Mayor Dorinda Borer shared the contents of a text she received from the twins' mother, who said she was spending time with her children at home in New York City but would have otherwise attended.
"You guys are our family, you guys are our heroes," Borer said as she read the text. "I hope one day we can have meals together.The twins are the luckiest ones in the world."
Borer said that she was proud of the actions of the first responders as a mayor and as a resident of the city.
Borer described the responding officers as "guardian angels" at the time of the incident, as a difference of mere seconds, she said, could have led to a much worse outcome for the twins. On Tuesday she said it could be divine intervention, fate or coincidence, but what Miller and Williamson demonstrated was "incredible police work" — Williamson for his situational awareness and Miller for his quick instincts.
Although it was Miller and Williamson who jumped into the water without radios and any illumination brighter than a flashlight, Police Captain Joseph Romano highlighted the work of multiple crews, including the firefighters who responded with the watercraft, officers who apprehended the suspect and officers who administered life-saving aid to the toddlers on the shore. In total, the incident lasted less than 22 minutes.
Miller and Williamson also visited the twins on their third birthdays at Yale New Haven Hospital before the twins were discharged the following day.
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