GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — An 8-year-old boy was safely found by the Gwinnett County Police Aviation Unit in Suwanee just before he could wander into a pond.
The boy had left his home and headed towards the woods, prompting a desperate search by both ground officers and the aviation unit.
Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson spoke with the tactical flight officer who spotted the child.
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Jakob Gunter told Johnson he used a thermal camera to locate the child in a wooded clearing near a body of water.
“If that were my child, I can’t imagine,” said Gunter said.
The search began when the boy’s mother lost sight of him as he headed towards the woods. Officers quickly flooded the neighborhood while the aviation unit scanned from above.
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Gunter, manning the camera inside the helicopter, pinpointed the boy’s location.
Officers on the ground were able to reach the boy just in time, preventing him from entering the pond.
“Hey, bud. I got him. Hey, man, how’d you get over here? You get lost?” an officer can be heard saying on bodycam footage.
“This takes priority over any of that stuff, absolutely,” Gunter said.
The aviation unit is also called in to help with missing elderly people before they can put themselves in danger.
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