Thread: Did any of you hear about this?

Was this the case in San Fran Bay ?

An apparently suicidal man waded into San Francisco Bay on Monday, stood up to his neck, and waited. As the man drowned, police, fire crews, and others watched idly from the shore.

Why? Officials blamed a departmental policy, stemming from budget cuts, that prevented them from jumping in to save him.

Fifty-year-old Raymond Zack spent nearly an hour in the water before drowning. A crowd of about 75 people, in addition to first responders, watched from the beach in Alameda across the bay from San Francisco as Zack inched farther and farther away, sometimes glancing back, a witness told the San Jose Mercury News. "The next thing he was floating face down."

A volunteer eventually pulled Zack's lifeless body from the Bay.

Mike D'Orazi of the Alameda Fire Department said that, due to 2009 budget cuts, his crews lacked the training and gear to enter the water. And a Coast Guard boat couldn't access the area because the water was too shallow. "The incident yesterday was deeply regrettable," D'Orazi said Tuesday. "But I can also see it from our firefighters' perspective. They're standing there wanting to do something, but they are handcuffed by policy at that point."

Alameda Police Lt. Sean Lynch also suggested his men did the right thing. "He was engaged in a deliberate act of taking his own life," Lynch told the Mercury News. "We did not know whether he was violent, whether drugs were involved. It's not a situation of a typical rescue."

But at a City Council hearing Tuesday night, some locals expressed outrage that Zack was left to die. "This just strikes me as not just a problem with funding, but a problem with the culture of what's going on in our city, that no one would take the time and help this drowning man," said one resident, Adam Gillitt.

The city said it would spend up to $40,000 to certify 16 firefighters in land-based water rescues.

One witness to the event told a local news station that Zack was looking at people on the shore. "We expected to see at some point that there would be a concern for him," said another.

So, some 75 people - locals as well as officials - stood there - as the guy just walked out over the course of an hour - and NO ONE chose to help ? Rowboat, surfboard ? Nothing ?? The city is afraid of litigation and/or personell getting hurt; what is the excuse of the bystanders ? Did this guy have a right to commit suicide where people could watch ? ( Watch out - it will be a new show in the fall based on this concept... )

Yes thats it. I couldn't believe no one helped him just stood there and watched. Thanks for posting it. What's sad is he might have changed his mind and been alive if just one person would have shown him they cared. He probably thought whats the use even they don't care if I die or not.

Originally Posted by SLance68

I personally would find this really hard to believe that out of 75 people not one of them attempted to assist this man. There has to be more to the story than what was reported.

I agree, something is left out here.

People try to commit suicide all the time. Police are trained to deal with this.

If this man was on a ledge, they wouldn't go crawling out to him but they would talk "him down" (or at least try) to safety.

Why not row boat out and talk to the guy instead of physically confronting him? Toss him a rope and tell him to hold on. Heck, walk back to shore.

Originally Posted by gmyers

I saw it again on the news this evening and they said they have reinstated the training for the rescue workers. Probably because of the negative publicity.

Most definitely.