Saugus Police Officers Ryan Bancroft and Athanasios Limbanovnous were lauded for jumping into the Saugus River to save a drowning man last summer. But, the police report filed for the incident presents a different version of the events of the night of Aug. 14, 2023.
In fact, the report, which was obtained through a public records request, makes no mention of the officers jumping into the water at all. Bancroft found the man, who had leaped into the water in a suicide attempt, “barely staying afloat” on the rocks near the Fox Hill Yacht Club after a search of the shoreline, and pulled him to safety from there, according to the narrative submitted by Police Officer Nicholas Cardinale.
In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Bancroft and Limbanovnous were roundly praised for their actions and received citations from the Board of Selectmen. Both men did not attend the board meeting at which they were recognized, with Police Chief Michael Ricciardelli attending in their stead.
For his part, Ricciardelli said “all the reports” he received indicated Bancroft went in the water “knee-deep.”
“Technically it’s accurate they went in the water,” he said. “Did they dive in, were they fully submerged? No, that’s not accurate.”
“They went in, but they didn’t dive in,” Ricciardelli added.
Ricciardelli said he did not notice the mention of the officers jumping into the water, which was in the subject line of an emailed press release about the incident, until it was mentioned to him by an Item reporter on Thursday morning.
“Something might’ve gotten lost in translation with our PR person,” Ricciardelli said of the disparity. “That shouldn’t have been written because that’s not how it happened.”
However, at the Board of Selectmen meeting Ricciardelli attended, then-Vice Chair Debra Panetta mentioned the officers jumping into the water.
Kelli O’Hara, a spokesperson for the Saugus Police Department who sent the press release, said the emphasis should be on the officers’ brave response.
“The fact of the matter is the officers rescued a man in distress, pulled him to safety, and in doing so saved his life. Let’s focus on the officer’s bravery,” O’Hara said in a statement. “My job is to inform the public in a timely manner with the information obtained at the time.”
The Saugus Police Patrol Officers’ Union said concerns were raised with Ricciardelli about the language in the release following its issuance. But those concerns were never addressed, as the department never issued any sort of retraction of its public account of the events that night.
The union was “confused by the dramatization.”
