(Long Beach, IN) - Two Long Beach Police officers have been recognized for saving the lives of several people, including a woman after she drove her car into Lake Michigan.

 

Deputy Marshals Jason Yagelski and Toby Babcock were awarded the Long Beach Police Department’s Life-Saving Award. The awards were issued on December 22 by Chief Marshal Mark Swistek.

 

On July 23, Babcock and Swistek waded out to a partially submerged 2016 Mazda sport utility vehicle drifting further out into the water off Lakeshore Dr.  The 33-year old female driver still inside the vehicle refused to unlock the doors, police said.

 

According to police, Babcock held on to the vehicle to keep it from floating deeper into the water while Swistek broke out a passenger side window with a hammer.

 

The suicidal woman telling officers to leave her alone was forcibly removed from the SUV and turned over to firefighters and ambulance workers for medical treatment, police said.

 

Police said she was the same woman who abandoned her 10-year old daughter along a roadside in Porter County before driving into the lake.

 

Yagelski saved the lives of three drug overdose victims turning blue from a weak pulse and shallow breathing in April, May, and June. Police said Yagelski administered two doses of the heroin antidote Narcan to a 20-year-old man inside a home on Hideaway Point in Long Beach.

 

While assisting other departments, Yagelski also gave two doses of Narcan to a female on the floor of a bathroom at Green Acres Trailer Park on Indiana 212 on Michigan City’s east side and one dose of Narcan to a male in the 3500 block of W. 1000 North in Springfield Township.