Police Rescue Man Found Near Death In Frigid Brook

By Andrew Gorosko

Teamwork coupled with a swift response to an unfolding emergency resulted in police saving the life of a disoriented man, whom they found naked and largely submerged in the frigid waters of the Pootatuck River’s north branch, near Huntingtown Road on Sunday morning.

At about 10:25 am, police received an Emergency 911 call placed on a cellular telephone by a passerby who spotted some suspicious activity near the intersection of South Main Street, Huntingtown Road, and Orchard Hill Road. The caller told police that a man on foot there was acting erratically, waving his hands and shouting for no apparent reason.

In response, police dispatched officers to investigate, said Sergeant Aaron Bahamonde, who was the sergeant on duty.

Police Patrol Officer Daniel McAnaspie went to the area, as did Patrol Officer Felicia Figol and Patrol Officer Todd Dingee. Officer Figol was in the same police car with Officer Dingee, whom she is supervising during Officer Dingee’s field training period for new officers.

Officer McAnaspie drove westward on Orchard Hill Road looking for the man in question, as Sgt Bahamonde drove southward on South Main Street, and Officer Figol and Officer Dingee traveled in tandem  southward on Huntingtown Road.

The officers stayed in radio communication during their simultaneous searches.

While traveling near a house at 8 Huntingtown Road, Officer Figol spotted a brown jacket, plus some papers, on the right side of the road. A trail of discarded garments extended from the road down a steep slope and toward the Pootatuck River’s north branch, which passes through the area. As police approached the brook, they heard a moaning sound.

Officers Figol and Dingee alerted Officer McAnaspie and Sgt Bahamonde of the situation. They converged at the scene.

Police found a stocky 32-year-old naked man, who had crawled through a hole in the ice above the frigid brook, lying in the frigid water submerged up to his neck, shuddering, shivering, moaning, and convulsing, Sgt Bahamonde said.

Officer McAnaspie, 29, rapidly entered the brook. With the others’ assistance, he hoisted the man from the water. Police pulled the man up the steep embankment and placed him in a patrol car to keep him warm until an ambulance arrived. The Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps transported the man to Danbury Hospital to be checked for medical/psychiatric problems.

Police did not identify the man, other than to say he was from Waterbury.      

Medical officials informed police that if the man had spent another minute in the frigid waters of the brook, he would have died, Sgt Bahamonde said. When the man was removed from the brook, he exhibited obvious signs of hypothermia and shock, plus seizures, the sergeant said.

Police later found a sport-utility vehicle, which the man had driven to Newtown, located in a parking lot near the intersection of South Main Street and Mile Hill Road. The man had apparently walked about two miles from that parking lot to Huntingtown Road.

Also, police received a report that the same man had been spotted earlier that day acting erratically at the Big Y supermarket at Newtown Shopping Village on Queen Street.

The rapid police response to the incident demonstrated good teamwork that saved the man’s life, Sgt Bahamonde said. Sgt Bahamonde said police lodged no charges against the man.

After police learned the man’s identity, they contacted his family.

Officer McAnaspie said that the incident represents one of the more unusual cases that he has encountered since starting work as a Newtown policeman in October 2003. Before joining the local police department, he had worked as a police officer in the Bronx in New York City for four years.