Three Ocala police officers rescue a woman trapped in a car that plunged into retention pond

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Three Ocala police officers rescued an unconscious woman from a car that had plunged into a retention pond Thursday night at the Fore Ranch subdivision in southwest Ocala.

Ocala Police Sgt. David Moorehead, an 11-year veteran with the department, told a Star-Banner reporter he was on the scene of a vehicle crash along State Road 200 when the call came out about a vehicle in water and a woman trapped inside. Officials said the call came in at 9:21 p.m. Thursday.

Moorehead said his first instinct was to get to the location as quickly as possible.

Moorehead said he got into his vehicle and went to the scene, which was the 4100 block of Southwest 54th Circle. He arrived at 9:25 p.m.

Two other officers, Ivan Hernandez and Hamilton McPhillips, who together have been with the agency for approximately four years, got to the scene within seconds of the supervisor's arrival, according to Moorehead.

All three officers immediately went into the murky, roughly chest-high water in the retention pond and made their way toward the vehicle, which officials said was a Honda.

Moorehead said one officer went to the passenger-side window and used an expandable baton to break the window. A second officer had a pocket knife with a window punch; he deployed it on the driver-side window.

The officers were able to open the driver-side door and remove the driver, identified only an adult woman. She was the vehicle's sole occupant.

Moorehead said they took the unconscious woman to the bank of the pond, where Ocala Fire Rescue officials provided treatment.

The woman was taken on trauma alert to HCA Florida Ocala Hospital for further treatment, Ocala Fire Rescue officials said.

While police officials don't know how the car ended up in the retention pond, they suspect the woman may have experienced a medical episode of some sort. According to an Ocala Fire Rescue news release, "The call was triggered after residents witnessed a vehicle accelerate through an entry gate, strike the controlled access unit, and veer off the road into a retention pond."

Ocala Fire Rescue officials on Friday said the woman was in stable condition at the hospital.