Polson police officer saves child

The day began like most other days for Polson Police Officer Aaron Sutton.

He and his fiance had scheduled engagement photos at Lake MacDonald Saturday, Jan. 19.

Following the photo session, he took his fiance to lunch at the KwaTaqNuk in Polson.

That’s when he heard the commotion.

A woman was screaming that her son had drowned in the pool, Sutton recalled.

Jumping into action, he directed his fiance to call 911.

“I went to the pool” where he saw a man holding a small, unresponsive child.

First-response training immediately kicked in, Sutton said, adding that he began patting the child on the back, incorporating a variation of the Heimlich maneuver on the child’s chest.

After a moment, the child came to, expelling water and began to cry.

“I sat him up,” Sutton said, relaying to his fiance to tell dispatch that he is a cop and the child was responsive.

Other Polson officers then showed up, and Sutton told them what happened “then left.”

While he’s been called a hero, Sutton doesn’t see it that way.

“If any officers were there, they would’ve done it,” he said.

His automatic reaction to the situation came from quickly observing and reacting, Sutton said.

“You have to make that decision (to react) pretty quick.

In his two years on the police force, Sutton said that nothing like last weekend’s incident has happened.

“I’ve never been around anything off-duty that I felt like I needed to intervene” off-duty, he added.

Sutton, 32, hails from Libby.

He became an officer as it “was in his blood,” he said, adding his father and brother are both la enforcement officers.

At press time Tuesday, Sutton was not aware of the child’s status.

He’s saying that it was a matter of being at the right place at the right time.

“I was right there when I was needed.”