Video shows Park Forest officers resuscitating overdose victim

PARK FOREST, IL. -- Police officers in south suburban Park Forest were caught on camera as they came to the rescue of an opioid overdose victim, part of a growing crisis that continues to claim lives.

It's a moment police training is supposed to prepare you for. Two Park Forrest officers pulled up to a stopped car to see the driver slumped over the wheel.

"We both saw that the subject had a needle sticking out of his arm, so the first thing that ran through our minds was an opiate overdose," said Officer Chris Batzel.

With the truck locked and still in drive, Officer JP Garrity scrambled to smash the window.

"Very scared that a car was going to come, his foot was going to come off the brake. A bad situation was going to get worse," Garrity said.

As he walked around to put the truck in park, Batzel grabbed a naloxone injector. Every member of the Park Forest Police Department now carries one. The dosage isn't as strong as the ones paramedics carry, but it can someone back to consciousness in a matter of seconds.

The officers' patient came to just as paramedics arrived.

Officers Batzel and Garrity only have a few years of experience on the force between them, but they hope they gave the man a wakeup call even as they gave him a second chance in less than a minute.

"Heroin is an extremely addictive drug," said Garrity.