Grand Prairie officer jumps into lake to save woman

A Grand Prairie police officer jumped into cold lake water and saved a woman during a suicide attempt Wednesday.

Patrol officer Lance Lybrand was at the very end of his overnight shift when he went into overtime and overdrive to save a woman clinging to a concrete beam of a bridge over Joe Pool Lake.

Lybrand says he'd encountered the woman on the bridge outside her car about 15 minutes before he rescued her. He said he'd talked to her for a bit but the woman said she was OK and drive off.

When a call came through a short time later that there was a car on the bridge, Lybrand knew how important it was for him to be there.

Lybrand went down the embankment into the water then swam 75 to 100 feet in very choppy water to get the woman and pull her to safety.

 “As soon as I noticed the vehicle was empty, I noticed a pair shoes right by the bridge and at that point I knew, I knew she was in the water,” said Grand Prairie PD Officer Lance Lybrand. “I just got there and told her I was going to get her out of there, grabbed her and just started pulling her to shore.”

Dashcam video shows him after the rescue back on dry ground wet, barefoot, holding his boots.

“I'm just glad I was there and I'm glad I was able to talk to her the first time so I was aware of that car,” said Lybrand. “Today we were able to help somebody and that's our goal.”