PAULDING COUNTY, Ga. — A Paulding County father and a former Cobb County police officer is being honored for his heroism saving a family last year.
The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission posthumously awarded Chase Childers with the Carnegie Medal for Heroism.
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Childers, 38, from Dallas was pulled from the ocean after drowning last July in Pawley’s Island, S.C.
Police say Childers ran into the water to help five people who had been caught in a rip current. They say he rescued all five, but got caught in the rip current himself and died.
The commission said that Childers swam further than where anyone was caught in the current. They say police believe that he may have thought someone else was in danger.
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Someone swam out to Childers, but by then, he was unresponsive.
His family identified him as a former Cobb County police officer who had received a lifetime achievement award for saving lives. They say he also spent time playing professional baseball in the Baltimore Orioles system.
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