Chesapeake police officer dies during dive-team training
By
Sarah Hutchins
The Virginian-Pilot
© December 20, 2011
CHESAPEAKE
A member of the police department dive team died during a training exercise at Oak Grove Lake Park on Tuesday.
Officer Timothy Schock was taking part in underwater search and rescue training around 11:45 a.m. when he had difficulty breathing, according to a statement from police chief Kelvin Wright.
When Schock surfaced, he told his team partner - who was with him during the training - that he couldn’t breath, Wright wrote.
Schock’s partner immediately tried to give him his own respirator, “but under the stress and duress of the situation, Officer Schock pushed away the apparatus and went back under water,” Wright wrote.
When divers on shore found out about the situation, they got into the water to try to get Shock back to the surface and on land, where they performed CPR, according to Wright. Later, emergency crews from the fire department continued lifesaving efforts.
The officer was transported to Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Wright said the circumstances of Schock’s death are still under investigation.
Schock is the third Chesapeake police officer to die in the line of duty in the last six years. In 2005, Officer Michael Saffran was fatally shot while responding to a bank robbery. Three years later, Det. Jarrod Shivers was killed during an attempt to serve a search warrant.