It would have been easy to drive by a pickup truck left on the side of I-575 in Canton.
Daylight was fading. It was just before 9:10 p.m. Monday.
And although a man and a woman in the truck had overdosed on drugs and were unresponsive, from the interstate they were easy to overlook, police said.
But one Canton police officer and a woman who just happened to be in the area didn’t just drive by. They saved two lives.
Police are now asking the public to help them find that woman.
The rescue unfolded when Officer Danny Mendoza was en route to help another officer on a stolen vehicle call, he said. Instead, he noticed the pickup truck stopped on I-575 South near exit No. 19.
The pickup’s hazard lights were flashing as Mendoza approached the truck. He could see the man below the driver’s seat was unconscious and his passenger was also unresponsive.
“I could hear low breathing sounds, and their skin was very pale,” Mendoza said.
Mendoza dragged the man away from the truck and laid him flat. After that, he briefly regained consciousness.
“He kind of snapped out of it,” Mendoza said.
So he laid the woman flat and began CPR on her first.
But within seconds, the man also slipped back out of consciousness.
“And at that point, I had no choice,” Mendoza said.
The woman was struggling to breathe.
Luckily, that’s when the good Samaritan saw the scene.
“She approached cautiously, yelling out she was there to help,” Mendoza said.
The man was barely breathing. So at Mendoza’s direction, the woman checked for a pulse and made sure his airway was clear.
Although Mendoza had his back to the woman helping, he said: “She sounded calm.”
Soon, the scene was loaded with about a dozen paramedics, firefighters and Cherokee County deputies.
“We had the interstate pretty much shut down,” Mendoza said.
Cpl. Tiffany Cromer, Cherokee County sheriff's Lt. David Barone and Deputy Joe Testa were just a few of the people who responded, police said.
The team continued CPR and administered Narcan to the two victims, police said. Narcan is an opioid reversal drug used to treat overdose victims.
Although it seemed much longer, the incident was over in a matter of minutes, Mendoza said.
And the woman who helped him had disappeared before Mendoza could get her name.
“I was very thankful to have her there with me,” he said.
Police hope someone will recognize the woman, who was captured in dashcam footage released Thursday. The department wants to honor her and the officers at an upcoming city council meeting.
Canton police Chief Mark Mitchell said he is “extremely proud” of the officers who “quickly worked together as a team. We are all in this together when it comes to serving our community.”
Anyone with information about the good Samaritan is asked to call Canton police at 770-720-4883.
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