Off-duty officer and the father perform CPR
Rescue CPR helped save a 9-year-old Montclair boy in a reported near-drowning Saturday evening at a home on Wertsville Road.
Hillsborough police responded to the home between Long Hill and Montgomery roads at 6:50 p.m. and found township police officer Christopher Weckenman, who was off duty and a guest at the residence, and the victim’s father performing CPR on the boy.
A 17-year-old guest first pulled the boy out of the water, police said.
The youngster regained a pulse, but could not breathe on his own. He was ultimately transported to Robert Wood Johnson in New Brunswick by the Hillsborough Rescue Squad and was admitted to the intensive care unit.
Township Police Lt. Mark Besser said there were no signs of foul play. The boy was at the Hillsborough home for what was believed to be a family barbecue outing, Chief Paul Kaminsky said. Several children were swimming in the pool, the chief said, when one of the children saw the 9-year-old “slip under the water.”
The pool was a built-in type, and surrounded by a fence. The victim was permitted to be in the pool when the incident occurred, police said.