Heart-pounding bodycam video shows rescue of mom from submerged car

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Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Heart-pounding bodycam video shows rescue of mom from submerged car
Heart-pounding bodycam video shows rescue of mom from submerged carA 12-year-old boy helped save his mother when he flagged down a police officer after his mother experienced a seizure while driving and fell into a body of water.

A 12-year-old boy helped save his mother when he flagged down a police officer after his mother experienced a seizure while driving and fell into a body of water.

Newly released police bodycam video shows the heart-pounding rescue of Jonquetta Winbush, a Texas mom of two, and her two children -- 16-year-old daughter Bri-Asia and 12-year-old son Dwight -- on July 24 in West Orange, Texas.

"She's having a seizure! She's stuck! She's in the water, help her!" Dwight says in the bodycam video clip.

West Orange Officer Charles Cobb and multiple good Samaritans responded to the scene at a pond off Highway 87 in West Orange and found a gray car partially submerged with Winbush inside.

Jonquetta Wilson and her two children were rescued from a partially submerged car off a Texas highway on July 24, 2024.
Jonquetta Wilson and her two children were rescued from a partially submerged car off a Texas highway on July 24, 2024.
West Orange Police Department

Bevnisha Holman, Winbush's sister, told ABC News that Dwight had managed to escape the car and swim out of the pond before running to find help.

"My nephew is able to swim out of the car to my niece, who then told him to go call for help," Holman said.

After Cobb heard Dwight and saw what had happened, he ran to his cruiser to grab a window punch to break into the car. Good Samaritans including Epifanio Munguia also jumped in to help.

"I realized that it was happening at that very moment. I pulled over and I jumped in the water," Munguia recalled to ABC News.

Munguia said he and others were able to break the submerged car's back window but the car then began to sink.

"And then as soon as we were opening the door, the front door, I heard 'I got her,' and I felt like I won the lottery," Munguia said.

The men pulled Winbush out of the water but she was unconscious, didn't have a pulse and was not breathing before Cobb administered several minutes of CPR.

"I remember grabbing her hand and I could feel the pulse in her wrist. I really don't know how to describe it to you other than just life started coming back into her," Munguia said.

Winbush is recovering in a hospital and after more than three weeks on a ventilator, Holman told ABC News her sister is now breathing on her own and getting stronger.

Holman and her family said they're grateful for the quick-thinking rescuers who didn't hesitate to help.

"My sister and my niece and nephew, they all needed you. Y'all stepped in. Y'all didn't hesitate," Holman said.

The city of West Orange honored Cobb and the good Samaritans on Aug. 13 with a life-saving award and letter of commendation.

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