Burnsville Man Saves Two From Drowning in Eagan's Fish Lake

Mark Halberg of Burnsville was visiting a friend in Eagan Sunday evening when she suggested that they walk her dog around a nearby lake.

The pair hadn’t gotten more than 100 yards down the path when they heard shouting, and a little girl ran past them, screaming, “My daddy’s dead! My daddy’s dead!”

Halberg, 49, didn’t hesitate. He raced toward a dock on Fish Lake, where a little boy was screaming, looked over the railing and saw 2-year-old Asghar Javed splashing around in the lake.

He reached over the end of the dock, pulled Asghar to safety and asked him, “Where’s your daddy? Where’d he go in?”

Asghar pointed to the lake, and Halberg leaped over the railing into the water.

“It was just total instant reaction,” Halberg said Thursday. “There was no thought involved.”

Halberg’s foot hit the shoulder of 39-year-old Muhammad Javed, the children’s father, who had jumped into the water to rescue Asghar when the child leaned over the boat to grab a turtle and landed in the lake.

Muhammad – who can’t swim – had become entangled in weeds beneath the surface of the lake. Halberg reached down, grabbed him by the armpits and brought him to the surface.

“But I couldn’t get him up on the dock over the railing; it wasn’t possible,” Halberg said.

As he held an unconscious Muhammad’s head above the water, Halberg looked behind him and saw Nancy Durkee of Eagan, rowing a small boat toward him as fast as she could. Durkee and Halberg were able to pull Muhammad into the boat with the help of Patrick Scanlon of Eagan, who was also on the lake in a small boat.

“We tipped (Muhammad’s) head to the side, and I started pounding on his chest,” Halberg said. “He coughed once, and I said, ‘Hey, you’re back.’ At that point I knew his airway was a little clearer.”

Moments later, Eagan police raced down the dock with medical kits and hauled Muhammad onto the dock, where they pounded on his back and administered oxygen. Muhammad eventually coughed up plants and algae from his nose and throat and began breathing on his own and asking for Asghar, whom he thought had drowned.

“Once Muhammad became alert, he began asking for his son,” the police report says. “His son was brought down to the pier to relieve Muhammad of his fear that his son was not OK.”

Both Muhammad and Asghar were taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul. Asghar was pronounced fine; Muhammad spent several days in the hospital, but both are fine.

“The quick reaction of Christian to run to get help, and Halberg running back with her, jumping in the water and pulling both Osgar and Muhammad up to the surface and out of the water resulted in the successful rescue,” one of the officers wrote in the police report.

The report also credits Scanlon and Durkee for their quick action in helping pull Muhammad out of the water.

Halberg – who works in construction, but is currently unemployed – demurs at being called a hero.

He said he’s a “pretty strong swimmer,” a skill he learned while growing up Lake Vermilion in northern Minnesota. “Water doesn’t really scare me much,” he said. “The bad part was that the weeds were really thick. They were all wrapped around (Muhammad’s) legs, and they were wrapping around mine while I was kicking.”

He said he doesn’t blame Muhammad for jumping into the lake after Asghar went over the side of the boat. “Any father would,” he said. “It was automatic.”

Halberg admitted it wasn’t the first time he’s rescued someone. In 1981, he said, he saw a woman flip her car on the highway. He ran across the road, kicked out the window of her car and asked the victim if she could move; two other men helped pull her out of the car, and she survived.

“I’m hoping it’s not that I attract this kind of thing,” Halberg joked. “If my friend hadn’t said, ‘Let’s go down to the lake,’ I would never have been there.”