Teenager rescued by Island bay constable

At about 1 p.m. Monday, Bay Constable Butch Labrozzi was patrolling off Camp Quinipet, according to Police Chief Jim Read, when he received a call from the Southold Police Department of a person “in distress in the waters off Nassau Point.”

He went across the bay and located the teenager, who was low in the water and struggling, the chief said. Constable Labrozzi’s first concern was maneuvering close enough without striking him with his boat.

The teenager had been on the sandbar with two other people, who were able to call for help when he began to struggle, swimming back to shore.

“The boy was near complete physical exhaustion, battling a current that pulled him into the water,” the chief said, when Constable Labrozzi arrived.

Alone in his boat, he carefully edged into place, opened a side “gunnel door” of his vessel, grabbed the boy by an arm and dragged him to safety into the boat.

The chief said, if the bay constable had not acted quickly and calmly, the boy might have drowned.

Constable Labrozzi reported that the boy, as he lay sprawled out on the deck of the boat trying to catch his breath, thanked him profusely for saving his life.

He was transferred onto a Cutchogue Fire Department rescue boat and brought back to land at the New Suffolk boat ramp.

An ambulance was waiting to transfer him to Peconic Bay Medical Center for precautionary reasons.