Officers Resuscitate Rockland 17-Year-Old At Ramapo Reservation

A drowning teen from Rockland was resuscitated after his friends pulled him from a lake in the Ramapo mountains, authorities said.

A drowning teen from Rockland was resuscitated after his friends pulled him from a lake in the Ramapo mountains in Mahwah, authorities said.
Photo Credit: *Google Maps*

Jerry DeMarco

07/06/2023 3:00 p.m.

The 17-year-old Spring Valley boy was surrounded by his friends in Bergen County when a group of Mahwah police officers -- identified as Nicholas Williams, Ryan Moore, Connor Gilgen, Luke Rice, and Liam Kantanas -- reached the upper lake at the Ramapo Reservation around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 5, Capt. Guido Bussinelli said.

He was unresponsive from all the water he’d ingested but had a pulse, Bussinelli said.

The boy apparently had jumped into the lake, began to struggle, and was underwater for nearly a minute before his friends were able to get him out, responders said.

The officers got the water expelled, which improved the boy’s breathing and had him talking with both them and medical emergency responders, Bussinelli said.

Sgt. Rosario Zito then supervised the teen’s transport down the mountain on a police utility terrain vehicle, Bussinelli said.

Mahwah EMS took him to The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood.

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