A 16-year-old boy who belly flopped into about 8 inches of water and then crawled and swam away from public safety officers was arrested Friday evening after sheriff’s deputies hauled the boy from the Willamette River onto a police boat, according to the Department of Public Safety and the Eugene Police Department.
The Eugene boy, who was caught by DPS officers on the river bank as he used a Steel Reserve can as a bong, was arrested on charges of possessing alcohol as a minor, possession of less than an ounce of marijuana and providing false information to police to avoid being arrested on a warrant, DPS officer Chris Phillips said.
He was first taken to Sacred Heart Medical Center after he spent about 45 minutes in the water, and then he was taken to a youth detention center, according to Phillips and an EPD press release.
Phillips said he and DPS officer Lisa Larkin approached the boy and a 45-year-old man sitting on the south bank of the river west of the Autzen Footbridge at 5:15 p.m. after they noticed three bikes in the area, one with a trailer that had a pair of bolt cutters on top. The boy had a beer can at his feet, Phillips said.
When Phillips asked the boy his name, he provided a fake name, “Hendricks,” spelling it first “Heix,” then “Heriex” and finally “Herix” to officers, Phillips said. The boy, who appeared scared, also gave a fake first name and then confused that name with his last name, Phillips said.
Phillips then told the boy to stand up. Instead, the boy shoved the other man toward the officers and belly flopped into the shallow water, hitting the bottom rocks before swimming out to an island, Phillips said. When Phillips asked him to come back because his escape wasn’t worth risking drowning, the boy turned and jumped into the swift current, Phillips said.
Larkin said the boy did a crawl swim and the backstroke until he exited the river across from the Eugene Water and Electric Board’s south administration building and ran into the bushes.
“If he cleaned himself up, he could be a swimming instructor,” Larkin said. “He was good.”
When he saw an EPD officer approaching, he jumped back in and swam down to the Coburg Road bridge, where he remained in the middle of the river to avoid officers, who were yelling at him from each bank, Larkin and Phillips said. Fire officials and the Lane County Sheriff’s Office each launched a boat, and hauled in the boy just down river from the bridge. The youth was still trying to swim away from them, Phillips said.
He was taken to the hospital with some cuts and bruises, Phillips said.
The river’s temperature was about 51 degrees that evening, according to the National Weather Service.
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