Oakland officers save drowning man from Lake Merritt canal: body camera video

OAKLAND, Calif. - Two Oakland police officers were credited over the weekend for saving a drowning man at a Lake Merritt canal, which was captured on body camera.

On Sept. 28, Officer Jessica Menezes and Sgt. Frank Negrete spotted the struggling man, who was hanging on to an extension cord that someone had thrown out into the canal.

They immediately jumped into the water to save him. Some of their actions were caught on body camera video. 

"I was just thinking of ways of how we were going to get to him,"  Menezes said Sunday night. Once she saw the sergeant swimming out there, she knew she was going in, too.

The officers reached the man, and swam him back to shore.

He remains hospitalized and police don’t yet know how or why he was in the water.

"Failure was not an option for us that night," Police Chief Floyd Mitchel said at a news conference.  "These are the types of stories as chief of police that I just love to talk about, the hard work and dedication these officers have."