Officer recounts being caught in rip current while responding to swimmer rescue call

By Sheldon Fox, Kevin Boulandier

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    MIAMI BEACH, Florida (WSVN) — A Miami Beach Officer is recounting the moments he felt his life was in danger while on a rescue mission for two swimmers lost at sea.

Anyer Volquez-Ozuna said he was caught in a rip current as he headed to the swimmer he could barely see due to the dangerous swimming conditions.

The rescue operation took place on March 4 on the beach off 16th Street.

Two swimmers were in distress way offshore so first responders, including Ozuna, arrived and immediately went in.

“Our guy is over there!” said an officer on body camera footage.

“(I) removed my vest. It was very hard to see because it was dark,” said Ozuna.

He entered the water but quickly found himself in trouble as he battled the horrible visibility and heavy surf.

With the victim said to be possibly drowning, he kept walking deeper into the dark ocean to try and save the swimmers.

“Is there a moment in your mind you’re saying “Man, this is far out. I don’t know how much my safety is going to be compromised?’” said 7News reporter Sheldon Fox.

“Absolutely,” said the officer.

But Ozuna kept trying to reach the swimmers and ended up getting sucked into a southward current that took him about a hundred yards away from the other first responders.

“I wasn’t gonna be able to outswim these waves,” he said.

As he waited for his colleagues to come to save him, he began praying about being able to see his family again.

“Please, lord, please, lord, get me out of this. In the name of Jesus, I pray to you. Get me home to my kids,” he said.

Then he repeated the phrase in Spanish.

“I just said ‘Get me out of this one,’” said Ozuna.

The officer needed to get out of the ocean.

After his colleagues rescued the distressed civilian swimmers, they put their focus on the officer in deep trouble.

With the waves pounding Ozuna, his fellow first responders knew they had to work fast to get close enough to grab him.

Using a long rope, one rescuer tried tossing it to Ozuna but it wasn’t enough so they had to come up with other ideas.

“The firefighter grabbed my hand and he pulled me,” said Ozuna.

Body camera footage, obtained exclusively by 7News, shows the exhausted officer being pulled to shore and safety.

“Definitely a miracle. God is great,” said Ozuna.

He told 7News he relied on his military and police training to get him through the uncertainty, along with the prayers to see his four children again.

What began as a rescue mission of civilians turned into a rescue mission of a fellow officer, but it ended up being a heroic search and rescue effort.

Ozuna was rushed to Mount Sinai Medical Center as a precaution.

Now, he’s grateful that he was able to return home to his family and his job.

“When I arrived home that night around four in the morning, the first thing I did was go to their rooms and hugged my kids,” said Ozuna.

At the hospital, he was given a chest x-ray and after doctors saw that he didn’t have water detected in his lungs, he was able to go home.

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