Officer Reggy Joseph, left, stands with Lt. Daniel Niekrasz of the Bloomfield Police Department.
By chance, a tragedy that would have reverberated through the township for years instead ended with the prospects of a 10-year-old boy explaining to his mother how he managed to come home, after an afternoon with friends, jacketless, swaddled in a blanket and soaked to the bone.
“Dispatch got a call from a neighbor with a backyard facing Clark’s Pond,” explained Bloomfield Police Department Officer Reggy Joseph who received the alert from dispatch. “I’ve gotten these calls before.”
It seemed that kids were monkeying around on the half-frozen pond again. Joseph, a 10-year veteran of the force, Bloomfield High School graduate, class of 2004, had attended the middle school which is an open sports field away from the bank of the pond. But on previous calls, he would respond via Holson Street, on the far side of the pond.
“I’ve been called multiple times, so I’m familiar with the area,” he said.
Coming from his Broad Street area car patrol, he drove through the school parking lot, across the field and out to the pond. Quickly leaving the vehicle, with his body-cam activated, he crossed the snowy landscape heading toward the water. It was Feb. 12, about 4 p.m. and his quickened footsteps could be heard crunching the snow. Kids were on the ice.
Viewed with Joseph and Lt. Daniel Niekrasz, the public information officer, the body cam recording showed two distinct groups on the ice. The closer one was playing soccer. The other group, near the spillway — where the water flows over a dam, was having a snowball fight.
The ice on the pond was visibly not frozen over completely and was more like an island of ice, its edges melting into the water with broad, frozen surfaces connecting to the shore. Joseph, his voice recorded by the body cam, shouted to the closer group to get off the ice and to be careful where they walked. The kids, about a half-dozen, came ashore and quietly walked by him. The images of the children throughout the recording were blocked out.
“I started making my way to the second group,” Joseph continued. “They were still having a snowball fight and running on the ice. I was helping this second group and noticed one kid lingering. That’s when the ice broke underneath him.”
The boy was nearly up to his neck in water. Joseph was not concerned about his own safety getting to the boy, he said. He was concerned about the threat of over-exposure and panic for the kid.
“There was nothing I had to do but get him out of the ice, especially with the cold weather,” he said. “I walked over to him and laid down on the ice and extended my hand to him to pull him out. I wasn’t sure if the ice was going to give or not.”
The gloveless officer grabbed the boy’s bare hand and pulled him out, making sure to hold onto him in case the ice broke under them both.
“Get me EMS and fire,” Joseph shouted into the body cam. “A juvenile fell through the ice.”
Standing up, they trudged ashore, Joseph grasping the boy by his ski jacket which was soon removed. The boy had on a short-sleeved shirt. Their feet could be heard breaking into the snow. Another patrol car, with Officer Anthony Bernado outside it, had arrived. Bernardo took off his jacket and gave it to the boy.
“He was shook up, upset more that his parents would see him soaking wet,” Joseph said. “I was trying to calm him down and keep him warm.”
Bernardo opened the rear door of his patrol car and the boy got in. The fire department and EMS arrived with EMS providing the boy with a blanket and the boy got into the ambulance. Joseph said a guardian came to pick up the boy. And then he went back to patrol.
“If that incident had happened before Officer Joseph arrived,” said Niekrasz, “it would have taken a longer time to get to the boy.”
It is fortunate, he said, when an officer has the opportunity to react to an incident instead of responding to it.
“It was a coincidence that Officer Joseph was dispatched and was there at that time,” he said. “It’s incredible.”
BPD Chief George Ricci said the rescue was another example of an officer putting the safety of residents before himself.
“I commend Officer Joseph for his bravery, pride and dedication to the citizens of Bloomfield,” he said.
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