By Lindsay Press
Two Suffolk County police officers were honored at a special ceremony at the H. Lee Dennison in Hauppauge on February 5 for their heroic efforts for saving the life of a jogger who was stuck in a large mud pit in a Smithtown park.
Sergeant Katherine Kuzminski and Officer Richard Esposito responded to the call and were able to pull Kyle Prato out of the mud. All three were at the ceremony, along with Prato’s dog, Striker.
On January 30, Kyle Prato, 24, called 911 during a walk with Striker after getting himself lost in Blydenburgh County Park in Smithtown. He started to sink in the mud, unable to pull himself out.
“I usually take my dog on a walk and we were going on a hike, and he ran off. I went to follow him and I started sinking down to my knees,” Prato recalled. Once I realized I wasn’t able to get out, I called 911. I was on the phone with them for about 40 minutes before Esposito was able to pull me out…sunk from my knees to my waist.”
When Striker realized something was wrong, he sat down near Prato at a safe distance. Prato was “more focused on being warm” until the police arrived, especially as he could not feel his face because of the extremely cold weather. “I could barely feel my lips.”
While Prato was slowly sinking, he held onto frozen dirt to keep his head and most of his body above the mud. “They were having trouble finding me, [so] they sent out a helicopter,” he said. “Once the helicopter spotted me, I felt better.”
Kuzminski and Esposito went in to rescue him. They were also briefly stuck in the mud but were able to shimmy, and army crawl their way out before they became as deep in the mud as Prato.
“These officers really did a heroic thing by going out into the mud knowing they may very well suffer the same fate as Kyle and Striker,” said Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina.
County Executive Ed Romaine also said, “If it wasn’t for these two police officers, this man would’ve had a much tougher time because he was sinking in the mud. … I want to thank them … our police officers every day … do everything to keep us safe.”
Kuzminiski said she was proud to be honored, calling it a “wonderful achievement” and “a team effort.”
Prato was grateful for the officers’ heroic efforts — and his cell phone. “If I didn’t have a cell phone,” he said, “I was probably gonna scream.”