An Atlantic City woman will face charges after she allegedly threw her 1-month-old daughter into a bay and then jumped in the water.
Atlantic City Police received a call shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday after a group of fishermen spotted a woman with a baby acting "unusual" near the inlet at Pacific Avenue.
According to the fishermen, the woman, later identified as 24-year-old Patricia Shurig, threw the infant into the bay and jumped in as well.
Witnesses said that the woman didn't respond when asked where she was going.
"We saw the lady walking to the rocks with the baby," said witness Jose Matos. "So my nephew asked her where she was going with the baby. She didn't say anything and just kept walking."
Two fishermen, Luis Ortiz of Egg Harbor Township, and Seth Perkins of Galloway Township, jumped into the water and managed to rescue the woman and her child. Thomas Bell, a retired Atlantic City firefighter who was at the scene, performed CPR on the unresponsive infant and was able to revive her.
"I said, 'I'm gonna go in for you but you can't panic and don't try to grab me,'" Ortiz said. "That's it. And I went in after her."
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Ortiz was in tears as he described the rescue.
"Why?" Ortiz asked. "What was going through that lady's mind to put herself and her child in danger like that?"
Thomas Bell, a retired Atlantic City firefighter who happened to be on the jetty at the time, performed CPR on the unresponsive infant and was able to revive her.
"The lady handed me the baby," Bell said. "I did two mouth breathes and turned her over and patted her on the back. She spit up a lot of water. Then I just ran down the jetty and gave her to the EMS people."
Both Shurig and her daughter, who investigators say was born last month, were taken to AtlantiCare. Their conditions were not known.
According to investigators, Shurig will be charged with aggravated assault with additional charges pending.
It's not clear if she has an attorney.
