Today on Good Morning Britain, a number of West Midlands police officers who were a part of the rescue mission to save four young boys who fell into a frozen lake last December joined hosts Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard.
The officers spoke about the heartbreaking scene that eventually took the lives of the four children and what it means to receive an award for their bravery.
The officers are said to have ‘ignored safety guidelines’ to go into the sub-zero waters without safety equipment. Describing what she saw at the scene, Paula said, “To be honest, nothing. It was still, we could see some holes in the ice, and we did our best at the time to get in as far as we could.
“We did what we could but we couldn’t get any further. One of my abiding memories is a sea of black and yellow running towards us.”
Another officer Charanjit explained, “The training kicked in, we couldn’t just stand there and do nothing while waiting for the other emergency services to arrive on the scene.
“I don’t want to sound cliche when I say this, but I genuinely believe that we did something that any other officer would’ve done. We just did what any other officer would’ve done.
Jordan, who is set to pass training to become a fully qualified police officer next March described his experience, “It was nerve-racking.
“You don’t really think about what you’re doing, it’s just the training kicks in and all, natural instincts just take over. And I remember being there and all I could think about was getting to the point where the children were. I didn’t think about my own safety.”
Chloe shared the moment when all officers decided to stand down, “We all sort of looked around to each other and thought, ‘We’re gonna become the casualties here as well’. We’re going so far into that water that we’re not gonna come back out.
“It was a really tough decision, some officers were up to their neck in the water and it was just getting deeper and deeper.”
Jordan continued, “I came out of the water and at that point, Fire [Safety] wasn’t there so then I went back in and it was that, that sent me over the edge and I ended up in the hospital because of it.”
Anthony shared, “We always have in the back of our mind to police and give our best effort and I genuinely think on that day, we showed everybody across the nation that, that literally what we do every single day, we put ourselves in harm’s way to protect everybody, the best we can.”
Paula also shared the aftermath of the tragic accident, “We went up a couple of days later and laid flowers and it just felt really strange that people were clapping us and thanking us because as we’ve always said, ‘We were just doing our job that day, that’s what we do’.
“Nobody thought about their own personal safety, our goal was to get to those boys and give them the best possible chance that we could.”
Officer Charanjit said, “Because of the gravity of it [the incident] – four children lost their lives. It’s something that’s gonna stay with you for a very long time, if not for the rest of your career.”
In closing Jordan said, “I’ve struggled with it, it’s been no secret. But I’ve got an amazing team around me and if it wasn’t for these guys I don’t think I’d be sitting here. We’re all very close.”
Good Morning Britain weekdays from 6am on ITV1 & ITVX
