Off-Duty Marietta Cop, Restaurant Employee Rescue Drowning Woman

MARIETTA, GA — Ryan Smith, a Marietta Police Department officer, does his job both on and off duty. Smith and an employee at Canoe Restaurant both jumped in the Chattahoochee River over the weekend to save a rafter who'd been struggling to stay on the surface for about two hours.

While eating with his girlfriend and her mother at Canoe for dinner Saturday, Smith said he noticed a woman in the river, according to 11Alive.

“We saw this woman just coming down on her float and it looked deflated. We were asking if she needed help, and it looked like she was nodding,” Smith told 11Alive.

Smith and one of the Canoe employees, Tim Eskew, immediately jumped in to save her.

“We were really just focused on trying to get her to shore. She said she really couldn’t move with the current,” Smith told the Marietta Daily Journal, adding that the woman wasn’t wearing a life vest. “I think she was just really trying to hold onto that raft. ... She was in a bathing suit with her raft, and that was about it.”

The woman they rescued was taken into the restaurant for food and a blanket, and later taken away by Cobb emergency services, likely for a medical evaluation, the MDJ reported.

Smith's girlfriend captured part of the rescue on her phone. Smith told 11Alive it was partially his previous lifeguard experience that prepared him for this rescue — he was a lifeguard for seven years, starting at age 15.

"The female rafter... cold, afraid and clinging to a sinking raft...got the much needed help to safety!!!" MPD posted on Facebook. "Badge on, or off... those committed to helping others are always 'on duty.'"