Quick action helps girl caught in Chappy current

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Max Sherman, shown here getting his sergeant badge pinned on by his wife Danielle, helped a young kayaker Sunday. It was Danielle who alerted him and jumped into action first.

On Sunday, Danielle Sherman and her husband, Tisbury Police Sgt. Max Sherman were heroes for a young girl stuck under the Dyke Bridge on Chappaquiddick.

The Shermans and their three children were heading home after a day at East Beach on Chappy when they spotted an overturned kayak in the water as they crossed the bridge.

“Usually kayaks aren’t just overturned; there’s usually people in them,” Max Sherman, who spoke to The Times by phone about the incident, said.

Danielle Sherman instinctively ran out of their car after seeing the kayak, and a man who was frantically searching around the bridge. She located a young girl holding onto the pilings underneath the bridge who was not able to swim to shore because of a strong current. The girl was with a man Sherman presumed to be the father.

“[Danielle] was on the top railing about to jump in,” Sherman said. He added that he was amazed, but not surprised that his wife was so ready to jump in the water despite only recently recovering from a broken neck a few months ago. “That’s who I’m married to. She’s a schoolteacher, and she’s just a selfless individual.”

Instead, Sherman went in the water, and assisted the girl, who told him she was “5 years old” and a “good swimmer.” Danielle then helped pull the girl up to safety. Aside from being stuck under the bridge, the girl and the man were OK.

“MY WIFE IS AMAZING!” Sherman wrote in part in a Facebook post about the event. “My wife was ready to jump in the water for unknown individuals in hopes to help. My wife who just over 8 months ago had a broken neck. She is amazing, and my kids have such a wonderful role model to look up to!”

While Sherman did not get the names or relationships of the individuals, he assumed it was a father-daughter duo that may not have been from the Island, and were unfamiliar with the currents.

13 COMMENTS

  1. Way to go. People like Danielle should and these stories should be talked about a lot more. The way this world is now we need all the good stories to be told.

  2. So Facebook is now the sole source for an article? I’m sure they are both hero’s. It would have been nice if the article had quoted witnesses or other corroborating evidence. But hey, he’s a cop and she’s a teacher and those kinda people never lie for attention. Ever.

    • Are you suggesting that they are lying in order to get attention? Why would you even make such a comment?

      • Patches- it seems that Sailfast is questioning the validity of this article because Mr. Sherman was in the paper last week and was accused of harassing a minority, gay, female co-worker and was accused of calling her names strikingly similar to the name of the bridge where this all happened… I don’t mind Sailfasts concern I think it’s a prudent observation.
        The TPD Facebook page is constantly trying to delete bad coverage and comments and replace with upstanding posts, so it’s possible Mr. Sherman learned this tactic as well. Either way, if this really did happen, then I applaud Danielle and her efforts.

    • Salifast, I couldn’t agree more. Where are the pictures to back this up? Sorry Mr. Sherman, but good press this week doesn’t cancel out the bad press from last week. Not sure what type of world you are living in, but usually when Hero’s do heroic actions, they don’t toot their own horns. It’s called modesty….

  3. Right… no corroboration for this story!!! Just a story… no pictures, no witnesses??? Please…

  4. Instead of lying in wait to kick a policemen’s butt, how about this?….
    What in the world was a 5 year old doing alone in a kayak?!

    • This was my first thought too, sounds like a negligent situation where a child was endangered in a life threatening situation and it might be important to confirm the name of the man and his relationship to the 5 year old girl before handing her over. The Edgartown Police may have found such information helpful if forbid there is any reason for follow up concern, hope not!

    • Maybe she wasn’t. He didn’t even know if the man was her father. Doesn’t sound like he had all the info.

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