A Florida deputy got sucked into a storm along with the man he was rescuing from treacherous floodwaters, and it was all caught on body camera.
Escambia County Deputy William Hollingsworth was patrolling the early hours of Friday, June 16 while severe thunderstorms dropped heavy rain across the Florida Panhandle, according to the sheriff's office. The deputy, who was looking out for motorists stranded by floods, spotted a man trapped in rising waters.
As Hollingsworth got out of his patrol car and approached the man, he watched him go underwater and jumped into action. His body camera filmed the deputy dipping below the water and getting sucked into a drainage pipe underneath Highway 98.
Authorities said Hollingsworth and the motorist spent 30 seconds underwater and traveled nearly 100 feet before resurfacing on the other side of the roadway.
"Can you f**king believe what happened to us?" Hollingsworth said as he approached the motorist. The deputy told the man to "just breathe" as he processes what just happened to him.
"I almost died," the motorist tells Hollingsworth. "Thank you, man, for being there when I [came] out."
ECSO said both of them were "lucky to be alive" and commended Deputy Hollingsworth for his brave actions.
"It shows the dramatic events from this morning and is an example of the exceptional courage displayed by the men and women of law enforcement every day," officials wrote on Facebook.