‘Like holding my own child,’ deputy who saved autistic boy says

( NewsNation ) —The heroic Florida sheriff’s deputy who saved a missing autistic boy from a large pond after hearing his cries through the woods says carrying the child out of the water felt like “holding his own child.”

Volusia County Sheriff’s Deputy Wes Brough saved the 5-year-old after he wandered from his home Tuesday evening in Deltona, near Daytona Beach on Florida’s Atlantic Coast.

“The biggest fear that I had was not being able to communicate with him, and he did a great job seeing me and making a noise and communicating the best way that he could. That was something that was pretty scary in the back of my mind, but he did a great job, on his own, reaching out to us,” Brough told NewsNation’s Nichole Berlie.

Brough, who is also a father, said he felt a “sense of relief and happiness” after spotting the boy in the water.

“It felt like holding my own kids, it’s a scary situation for him, scary situation for the family, so just holding on to him and taking care of him like he was one of my own children. It’s just a really, really good feeling,” he said.

The deputy credits autism awareness training that taught him that kids with autism are drawn to water.

The family of the boy called 911 shortly after 7:30 p.m. when they were alerted to the boy’s disappearance by an alarm.

Brough and other deputies began by searching the home but soon focused on nearby ponds and lakes in the Valmont Lane neighborhood.

The father told deputies the child had escaped through a second-story door, which set off an alarm, according to an account of the incident posted on the sheriff’s Facebook page.

Body camera footage shows Brough searching near a pond near the family’s home when he hears the child’s voice.

He spotted the boy holding onto a log in the water and ran through the woods, ripped off his bulletproof vest and went into a pond to grab the child.

Police video shows Brough holding the boy in his arms as they walked back to land.

Sheriff’s officials said the boy’s family had taken several measures to secure the home, including having an alarm on the door. That’s what alerted them that the child had left the house.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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