ANAHEIM : 11-Year-Old Honored for Saving Boys

Johnny Cruz just turned 11 and he wants to be a police officer, but that is not why he was honored by the police chief this week.

The shy sixth-grader was honored Thursday night for diving into an apartment building’s 10-foot-deep swimming pool and rescuing two drowning brothers, Abdisalan and Abdirahman Hussein, ages 6 and 8.

“Johnny had the sense to do some things that even adults don’t have the sense to do sometimes,” Police Chief Joseph T. Molloy said as he presented the boy with a Citizen Lifesaver Award from his department. “This young man is an exemplary individual who is not only responsible, he quite possibly saved two young people’s lives.”

For his efforts, Johnny, who attends Robert M. Pyles Elementary School, received a plaque and tickets to a California Angels baseball game and Disneyland.

Despite all of the attention, Johnny was modest when asked about the Aug. 5, 1991, incident. He said it was 5 p.m. and he was visiting the apartment complex down the street from his home, when his 11-year-old uncle, Oscar Barcenas, yelled that there were two boys at the bottom of the pool.

Johnny ran over and dived to the bottom of the pool, pulling out Abdrahman and dragging him to the pool’s deck. Oscar hit Abdrahman on the back and revived him.

Johnny then realized that Abdisalan was still on the pool bottom. He dived back in and pulled the unconscious boy to the pool’s side. “I was yelling for my dad because I was tired and I couldn’t pull him up,” Johnny said.

Johnny’s father, Juan Manuel Cruz, came running and with a family friend, Marcelino Sandoval, pulled Abdisalan out. “He wasn’t breathing and his eyes were wide open and he was stiff and cold,” said Cruz, a carpenter. “We started pushing on his chest and water came out his mouth. My friend said ‘He’s dead.’ But I just prayed ‘God help this kid,’ because I know I wouldn’t want my kid to die. I felt his neck and I felt a pulse so I just kept pushing on his chest and he started making noises.”

Police Officer Jim Popa arrived moments later. He said that Abdisalan was blue and he immediately administered mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Abdisalan came around after a minute, he said.

“Johnny’s the hero in this,” Popa said. “If he hadn’t pulled the boys out, they’d have drowned.”

Both Abdrahman and Abdisalan, who were born in Somalia, recovered fully. Both they and their mother, Kadije Hussein, say they are “thankful” for the Cruz family, especially Johnny. “He saved my boys,” Kadije Hussein said.

Since the accident, Johnny’s father says he has noticed his son is more confident.

“He still sometimes puts himself down, but I just say, ‘ Mijo , you saw what you can do. By doing something special, you proved you’re special,’ ” Cruz said.