An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Even as the two po­lice of­fi­cers who re­port­ed­ly res­cued eight-year-old Abi­gail Joseph from the East Dry Riv­er (EDR) on Sun­day were be­ing com­mend­ed yes­ter­day, res­i­dents of Harpe Place in Port-of-Spain called for home­town hero Dil­lon Ram­sey to al­so be recog­nised for his brav­ery.

Re­fut­ing me­dia re­ports that he had on­ly as­sist­ed in the dra­mat­ic res­cue, Ram­sey said it was he who first spot­ted the child in the rough wa­ters and ini­tial­ly thought it was “a big dol­ly.”

Point­ing to the spot where he had been fish­ing in the riv­er in the vicin­i­ty of the Ob­ser­va­to­ry Street Bridge, the 33-year-old fa­ther of two said he hap­pened to be in the right spot at the right time and said, “This was God’s work.”

Joseph, of Ward Lane, Gon­za­les, was re­port­ed­ly play­ing in the rain with oth­er chil­dren when she al­leged­ly slipped and fell in­to one of the drains that emp­ty in­to the EDR. The trau­ma­tised young­ster was washed up ap­prox­i­mate­ly a kilo­me­tre from where she fell.

Re­veal­ing he had been stand­ing on the con­crete em­bank­ment of the riv­er fish­ing for food to feed his two pet tur­tles around 3.30 pm on Oc­to­ber 6, Ram­sey said, “Just so, I see­ing some­thing com­ing down the riv­er like a dol­ly, and when I watch so, is a lil girl com­ing down the riv­er by the bridge by the gas sta­tion.”

Ad­mit­ting he be­gan to pan­ic, he went on, “Same time, I just dive in the riv­er be­hind the lil girl and start to go be­hind she. All kin­da log ting com­ing down.” Pulling aside his jer­sey to show the cuts and bruis­es he sus­tained, he con­tin­ued, “I start to go be­hind she. I go­ing be­hind she, I go­ing be­hind she. I lorse she a lil bit and I start to see she go­ing down and I go be­hind she again.”

He added, “I reach quite Besson Street Po­lice Sta­tion down by St Paul and I reach Sea Lots Bridge and see a po­lice jeep...and is a po­lice­man in the riv­er, fight­ing...he cyar even help he-self, he fight­ing up to help he­s­elf, and I had­da hold him by the foot and lift him up and put him on the bank­ing and he fight­ing up, try­ing to hold the lil girl...and I had­da hold the lil girl and put she up on the bank­ing too.”

The of­fi­cer in ques­tion he was re­fer­ring to was PC Tay­lor, of the In­ter-Agency Task Force, who had al­so jumped in the wa­ter in a bid to pull Joseph to safe­ty.

Tay­lor, who him­self en­coun­tered dif­fi­cul­ty and al­most drowned, al­so in­jured his right arm in the ef­fort.

He was as­sist­ed by PC Nep­tune, al­so of the IATF, who yes­ter­day ad­mit­ted he was still shak­en by the in­ci­dent.

Though thank­ful the child was safe, Ram­sey said he felt cheat­ed of the recog­ni­tion for the part he played in the over­all ef­fort.

Claim­ing he had been left for­got­ten as he wait­ed out­side the Besson Street Po­lice Sta­tion as of­fi­cers tend­ed to the fright­ened girl, Ram­sey said, “Not a po­lice of­fi­cer or po­lice­woman come out­side to say thank you very much, sir, you did a good job.”

He said, “God put me there to save that lit­tle girl,” adding, “I save the po­lice­man and all.”

Thank­ing both Ram­sey and the po­lice of­fi­cers for sav­ing her daugh­ter, Joseph’s moth­er, Chris­tiane Hyde-Joseph, yes­ter­day said the or­deal, as de­scribed by her daugh­ter, had been “trau­ma­tis­ing” for them all.

The deeply spir­i­tu­al woman said this had on­ly reaf­firmed her faith that “God’s hand is up­on her life.” She re­called her daugh­ter shak­ing, cry­ing and hug­ging her when they were re­unit­ed at the po­lice sta­tion on Sun­day.

Hyde-Joseph said her daugh­ter had swal­lowed a lot of wa­ter whilst be­ing tum­bled in the riv­er and had vom­it­ed as she was swept along, in ad­di­tion to be­ing un­able to breathe. The grate­ful woman said, “She said some­body else jump in be­fore, but he couldn’t reach her, and then she saw the po­lice­man jump in the wa­ter.

“I just want to thank the po­lice of­fi­cers and al­so the gen­tle­man that saved the life of my daugh­ter, and I know that God re­al­ly spoke to them, that gave them that in­stinct to save her life.”

She said her first in­stinct up­on learn­ing of what had hap­pened was to lean on her God for strength and hope.

“I know how God works...and he works in mys­te­ri­ous ways.”

Un­will­ing to wake her daugh­ter yes­ter­day when Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the house in Gon­za­les, Hyde-Joseph said she had on­ly been re­leased from the hos­pi­tal yes­ter­day morn­ing and was rest­ing.

Asked if Abi­gail, who is now learn­ing to swim in school, had spo­ken of ven­tur­ing back out to play in the rain, she smiled and said, “To be hon­est, she is very brave and very strong. But she did men­tion not play­ing in the rain again.”

Abi­gail sus­tained bruis­es to her hands and knees.

Hyde-Joseph al­so added her voice to those call­ing for Ram­sey and the of­fi­cers to be re­ward­ed for their brav­ery.

El­der­ly res­i­dent Glen Walk­er de­scribed the hero­ic act as “a great, great, great thing.”