Object Details
- Waite, David J.
- referenced
- Roberts, LeJon
- New Orleans Police Department
- Description
- Law enforcement personnel joined with many other groups to save lives in the wake of Katrina's passage through the Gulf Coast in August 2005. Skills used to apprehend criminals were supplemented by heroic attempts to rescue victims caught up in the swirling waters of the hurricane.
- On the night of the hurricane Officer David Waite of the New Orleans Police Department was wearing this bullet-proof vest when he jumped into deep water in a city housing project to save a five-day-old girl. That girl and her family were escaping their housing in an overloaded boat that had just capsized. A nearby police boat witnessed the scene. The girl's mother attempted to lift the baby out of the water, but the infant seat in which she was strapped was too heavy and sank. Waite swam down to it and pulled the seat and baby into his craft. Another officer, Lejon Roberts, administered CPR to the infant as their boat sped to a nearby hospital. The child and her family survived.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Gift of David Waite
- Associated Date
- August - September 2005
- ID Number
- 2006.0066.01
- catalog number
- 2006.0066.01
- accession number
- 2006.0066
- Object Name
- Vest
- Measurements
- overall: 19 1/2 in x 20 in x 3 1/2 in; 49.53 cm x 50.8 cm x 8.89 cm
- referenced
- United States: Louisiana
- United States: Louisiana, New Orleans
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
- Government, Politics, and Reform
- Clothing & Accessories
- Cultures & Communities
- Textiles
- National Museum of American History
- related event
- Hurricane Katrina
- Record ID
- nmah_1313395
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ac-0ede-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
