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Jeffersonville Police officer rescues 4-year-old from wastewater - WDRB 41 Louisville News

Jeffersonville Police Officer Rescues 4-Year-Old from wastewater

treatment pool

Posted: Mar 11, 2015 7:22 PM CDT

Updated: Mar 11, 2015 09:19 PM

Rachel Collier

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Jeffersonville Police officer

made an incredible rescue after a young autistic boy

disappeared last weekend and turned up in a wastewater

treatment pool.

The four-year-old boy and his mother were at a playground

at Spring Hill Elementary School when the mother lost track

of the boy late Sunday afternoon. Officers started looking for

him, and one officer checked a nearby wastewater treatment

plant.

Patrolman Joshua Leveronne isn't sure what led him to look

for the missing boy at Jeffersonville's wastewater treatment

facility.

"I'm a firm believer in divine intervention," said Leveronne on

the subject.

He noticed a gap in the gate -- which has since been fixed --

and he said he figured a four-year-old boy could fit through

it.

That is exactly what happened. Surveillance video shows the

boy squeezing through the gap and wandering into the

complex.

Leveronne climbed the fence and started scanning the area.

He heard whimpering and spotted the boy inside a clarifier

filled with sewage.

"I just called in on the radio that I located him and took off

running after him. So I just ran down the walkway there and

started taking off gear my jacket, duty belt, my vest, thinking

I was going to have to go in after him," he explained.

The boy was holding on to something inside the pool.

"I was able to lay down on the deck and he reached out to

me and I pulled him up. I just grabbed him, bear hugged him

wrapped him in my jacket and took off running," he said.

Leveronne didn't blink. "Never, never. It was just instinct, you

know?"

The boy doesn't speak, but Leveronne said he could feel the

boy's fear.

"He wouldn't let go of me," he said. "When we were waiting

for the ambulance he just was hugging me, it was definitely

the most rewarding day of my career."

Leveronne later learned the clarifier is 18 feet deep and was

about 50 degrees Sunday.

"I wouldn't hesitate, if it happened again tomorrow I'd do the

same thing," he said.

Officers say the boy was released from the hospital the night

of the incident. We got in touch with the boy's mother who

did not want to go on camera. We are helping her get in

touch with the officer, as she wanted to give him an update

on her son.