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(ABC7) — Police Officer Chris Mamalis knows the meaning of “to protect and to serve”. Thursday afternoon, while driving to the Mount Vernon District police station to report for work Mamalis spotted what appeared to be a group of neighborhood children dragging another child, the Fairfax County Police Department said.
“I saw a group of neighborhood kids, and when I looked at them they were all waving their arms,” Officer Mamalis told ABC7.
The children recognized Mamalis as one of their neighbors and a police officerand flagged him down, because a 9-year-old boy had fallen through the ice at a nearby creek and his wet clothing were beginning to freeze, according to police.
The child was nearly unconscious and unresponsive.
Mamalis placed the child in his vehicle, removed the child’s outer, wet clothing and put some of his own dry clothes on the child. He turned up the heat in his vehicle and called for emergency medical service, police said.
“I got his wet clothes, as much of them as I could get off, and I started wrapping him in warm clothes that I had available, while turning up the heat and calling for rescue,” he said.
The child was transported to the Inova Fairfax Hospital, where he was treated for non-life threatening injuries.
Mamalis said he helped because he’s an officer, but even more so because he’s a neighbor.
“Every neighborhood we should all watch out for each other. And I’m just glad that I was a good neighbor at that point in time.”
