A Chicago police officer saved a woman drowning in Lake Michigan on Thursday.
The rescue happened just after 5:30 a.m. when the department received a 9-1-1 call about a swimmer in distress off the shore of North Avenue beach, WFLD-TV reports. After arriving at the scene, Officer Joanna Tys jumped in the water to reach the struggling woman when she heard the fire department was four minutes out.
"Four minutes is a long time," Tys said during a press conference. "The lady was out there for 15 to 20 minutes already. So I decided it's time for me to jump in. I looked at one of my coworkers, and we signaled to one another. I jumped in. I started swimming towards her. Halfway, I started to really get tired. But I heard my coworkers telling me: keep going, keep going."
Once Tys got to the woman, she wrapped an arm around the swimmer and held her afloat to keep her from drowning. They then waited for the Chicago Fire Department's Marine Unit to pull them from the water.
"She was just saying over and over again how happy she is that I saved her life, and about how much she loves me. It was a really great moment," said Tys, who thanked her mom for giving her swimming lessons as a kid. "That was probably the best moment in my career."
