Family Credits OCPD Officers For Saving Man's Life

Four Oklahoma City police officers were hailed as heroes after saving a man's life.

The family was eating lunch over the weekend when their father began having a heart attack.

What started off as an everyday lunch break for a group of officers, quickly turned into being right back on-duty.

Surveillance video at Chen's Buffett on N.W. 23rd Street and Meridian Avenue showed a woman rushing to get officers help.

"Her exact words were, ‘We need 911 back here,'" said MSgt. Britt High.

All four officers rushed out of their seats when they learned 83-year-old William Crye's heart stopped.

He was slumped over in his seat, unconscious, as his wife was by his side.

And in no time, the officers started performing CPR. The other three officers there were Sgt. Matt Guy, Ofcr. Mark Alexander and Ofcr. Darren Garrett.

“I told my mother, ‘If you'd been at home, there's no one way he would've made it,'” said Crye's son Kevin Crye of Dallas.

“Just happened to be in the right place and right time where the people who could take care of it were there.”

The officers kept pumping until paramedics arrived.

It was unlike anything Yong Chen said he's seen inside his restaurant, and he said he is thankful first responders were so close by.

"It's good that police officers were here to help, and they eat here all the time," Chen said.

And even after an ambulance came, the officers kept doing CPR.

MSgt. High even drove Crye's wife to the hospital, and she and her family called all the officers heroes.

"It actually feels wonderful because to be honest with you, when we left the hospital we actually thought he was deceased, and are glad to know he pulled though," High said.

Crye survived and for that his family said they are forever grateful.

“The amazing part is he is alive and he shouldn't have been alive. You don't go 45 minutes without a pulse and someone working on you and stay alive, especially at 83,” Kevin Crye said.

“So he's doing a lot better now. He's not out of the woods yet, but a whole lot better than anybody could've expected.”

Crye's family said he is still recovering in the ICU with breathing tubes. They said they are thankful the officers gave him a fighting chance to live.