FORT LAUDERALE – The Fort Lauderdale City Commission Wednesday night officially honored the teenager, police officers and others who helped save the life of an officer who collapsed while booking the teen into a holding cell.
Jamal Rutledge, 17, was handcuffed at Fort Lauderdale’s booking facility in September when Officer Franklin Foulks suddenly toppled off his chair and collapsed on the floor.
In surveillance video at the facility, Rutledge is seen kicking a security fence and yelling to alert other officers in the area.
Sgt. Todd Bunin and officers Robert Norvis and Raymond Ketchmark were honored for beginning CPR and using a defibrillator to aid Foulks until rescuers arrived.
On Wednesday night a recovered Foulks, 49, thanked everyone who came to his aid.
“What they gave me back that night was the ability to continue to enjoy my family,” Foulks said while acknowledging his wife and others in the city commission chambers.
At the time of the incident on Sept. 10, Rutledge was being booked for a probation violation on various charges, including burglary. He has since had other arrests but, in an interview with the Sun Sentinel last week, indicated he would like to reform his ways.
“I want to write a book”, Rutledge said, “about how people do bad things but they can change their life around.”
(c)2015 the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
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