The One That Didn’t Get Away : Boy, 13, Fishes Out a Drowning Child

Christopher Pelosi and his father went fishing at Alondra Park near Lawndale Wednesday afternoon. Instead of pulling in bass, the 13-year-old ninth-grader fished out a drowning 8-year-old child.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced Thursday that it is considering a heroism commendation for Christopher.

Avid fishermen, Christopher and his father, Salvator, a maintenance worker at Standard Brands, headed for the fishing lake at Alondra Park in the 3600 block of Redondo Beach Boulevard, an unincorporated area adjacent to Lawndale.

Near a favorite fishing spot, Cameron Walters, 8, who police said is mentally disabled and has the mind of a 3-year-old, was walking with his guardian, Sheryl Shorter, and another child.

Cameron, who is fascinated with water, got away from Shorter and began wading into the lake, which is four feet deep. About 25 yards from shore, he slipped and began to drown. Shorter, a non-swimmer, screamed at the child to come back. One person left to call police.

Everyone else just watched.

“Although there were numerous eyewitnesses to the impending drowning of Cameron, none went to his aid,” Deputy Richard Shaw said.

The elder Pelosi summoned his son. Recalled Christopher: “He (Cameron) went down and came up and went down and came up. He started to go down for five seconds at a time. I realized he was in trouble.”

The youth emptied his pockets and jumped in. Christopher said that when he reached Cameron, the boy’s “face was blue.”

Christopher carried the child to shore, where Cameron slowly recovered on his own. By the time county Fire Department paramedics and sheriff’s deputies arrived, the excitement was over.

At North High in Torrance Thursday, Christopher was a bit embarrassed by the attention he was getting.

“I knew I did a good deed,” he said as classmates teased him. “But I didn’t think it would turn out like this.”

“We are so proud of you,” principal Peggy Tremayne told Christopher.

“You got a hero here,” she told the boy’s mother.

“I brought him up to do what he had to do,” his father said.