Kealii J. Akahane

Kealii J. Akahane helped rescue a boy from drowning, Bellevue, Washington, June 6, 2022. In a suicide attempt, a 17-year-old high school student loaded a backpack with dumbbell weights totaling 50 pounds and entered Phantom Lake. On duty, Akahane, 51, police officer, and his partner had been dispatched to the scene after police were told the boy’s father received a text from the boy saying he intended to commit suicide. Akahane and his partner exited their vehicles and searched the park for the boy. They approached a fishing pier that extended just above the water about 110 feet over the lake and walked to its far end. Both officers noticed bubbles collecting on the surface of the murky water, then saw a hand reaching up just beneath the surface. Akahane removed his duty belt, leaving his ballistic vest, uniform, and boots on before entering the 11-foot-deep water feet first from the pier. He submerged twice, sweeping his arms in search of the boy, but was unable to locate him, surfacing each time for air. Akahane submerged again and felt something brush his lower leg. He grasped the boy’s arm and pulled him to the surface, at which point he placed his left arm around the boy’s torso and held his head above water. Akahane grasped one of the pier’s wooden supports with his right hand, and using his left hand, pushed the boy upward. Akahane’s partner grasped the boy’s arm, and with the help of another officer, pulled the boy to safety on the pier. The officer administered CPR before responding firefighters arrived, at which point, he and Akahane’s partner helped carry the boy approximately 700 feet to an ambulance that transported the boy to the hospital for treatment. He recovered. Akahane, too exhausted to climb onto the pier, remained in the water for about 15 minutes before firefighters provided a hook ladder which Akahane used to exit the lake. Akahane was cold and exhausted but did not seek medical attention; he recovered.