VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) – Neighbors in a Virginia community are recognizing a homeless man’s efforts to save a woman after she fell in a pond.
The woman, who was in a wheelchair, had fallen into a lake in Virginia Beach just after 6 p.m. on March 6, according to Virginia Beach EMS.
Kevin Nizer, who’s lived in the community for eight years, said he was on his balcony overlooking the water when he noticed the commotion.
“I take a double look and see a set of legs and immediately the cry for help. When you hear that cry, it’s so gut-wrenching. You don’t want to see it again,” he said.
The U.S. Navy veteran said he ran inside to get dressed while his fiancée ran down to the lake. When Nizer caught up to her, he said people were already pulling the woman out of the water.
He grabbed blankets to keep her warm, while another neighbor with nursing experience also came out to help. Virginia Beach EMS confirmed that the patient was later transported to the hospital.
“The show of community in all of this chaos of the world we live in was just a gorgeous thing to see,” Nizer said.
But the most moving part for Nizer, besides helping to save a life, are the actions of one of the men who reached the woman first and called out for help.
Nizer is talking about Bradley Glover, a man who’s currently living through homelessness.
Glover was at his friend’s apartment on Sunday when the two saw the woman in the wheelchair fall into the water.
“I just did it. Instincts,” Glover remembered of rushing down to the pond to retrieve the woman. “My whole body shut down completely. I was able to hold the wheelchair out of the water.”
Glover said he’s never saved anyone before.
“It was all in God’s hands. God being there for me,” he said. “Everyone’s been there for me. Virginia Beach is strong. It’s just one thing.”
Nizer hopes that others will hear about Glover’s actions and be inspired to not only act with kindness and bravery, but also to treat those experiencing homelessness better.
“You don’t ever think to even say hi. You just go about your businesses. You wouldn’t know that guy’s a hero,” Nizer said.
“I will forever be changed by that day,” Nizer added, calling Glover a someone who “would give the only shirt off his back and he wouldn’t care.”
“To see him as soon as it happened, to see him laid out on the sidewalk completely exhausted — he didn’t even have a meal for [himself] that day. For as many things I saw in the military, it was life-changing for me. That man allowed her to breathe,” Nizer said.