Shannon Sade O'Neal

Shannon Sade O’Neal helped to rescue Tyshaun LaFlore from drowning, Aurora, Illinois, November 22, 2022. Tyshaun, 9, student, and several friends were throwing a football near an ice-covered retention pond in a common area at the center of the apartment complex where they lived. Tyshaun walked onto the ice to retrieve the football when he felt the ice give way beneath his feet, submerging him in the cold water. Tyshaun, struggling to swim, attempted to grasp the edge of the ice as it kept breaking away. Meanwhile, one of the panicked children ran to their apartment and alerted their mother, Shannon Sade O’Neal, 34, healthcare worker, who rushed to the water’s edge, losing her shoes in the process. Once at the retention pond, O’Neal walked about 30 feet onto the ice when she heard the ice cracking beneath her feet. O’Neal dived into the water, covering about 12 feet, before resurfacing within arm’s reach of Tyshaun. O’Neal calmed Tyshaun and instructed him to wrap his arms around her shoulders and cling to her back. As O’Neal was instructing Tyshaun to reposition himself, she heard approaching sirens. She called out to bystanders on the bank to help police find the pond while she continued treading water with Tyshaun. Police rushed to the water’s edge with emergency water rescue kits. An officer entered the water, breaking ice, while wading and swimming to O’Neal and Tyshaun while additional officers on land threw rescue ropes into the water. O’Neal grasped a rope that landed near her in the water, at which point the officers in the water and on the bank pulled O’Neal and Tyshaun to shore. Tyshaun was cold and tired, but otherwise unharmed. O’Neal suffered abrasions and cuts to her arms, as well as intermittent vomiting after swallowing pond water that lasted the rest of the day; she recovered.