Rescue officials say a group of inmates on a prison work crew dove into a fast-moving, frigid Washington state river to save three young brothers who were dumped in the water after their canoe capsized.
KPTV reports the inmate crew from Larch Corrections Center was finishing their work for the day near the river when they heard the children's screams. "We just thought it was some kids screaming until we seen their two heads bobbing in the water with the canoe upside down," Nelson Pettis, a member of the crew told KPTV. "They were coming down over flooded Salmon Creek. It was raging pretty fast."
The three brothers, aged 8, 10 and 16, had lost control of their boat in the strong current. Pettis says he and another inmate Larry Bohn jumped into the river.
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." Thomas Jefferson