Police SWAT Vest
date: label: Associated Date
content: August - September 2005
name: label: user
content: Waite, David J.
label: referenced
content: Roberts, LeJon
label: referenced
content: New Orleans Police Department
notes: label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: referenced
content: United States: Louisiana
label: referenced
content: United States: Louisiana, New Orleans
topic: label: related event
content: Hurricane Katrina
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
label: See more items in
content: Government, Politics, and Reform
label: See more items in
content: Clothing & Accessories
label: See more items in
content: Cultures & Communities
label: See more items in
content: Textiles
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of David Waite
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2006.0066.01
label: catalog number
content: 2006.0066.01
label: accession number
content: 2006.0066
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Vest
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 19 1/2 in x 20 in x 3 1/2 in; 49.53 cm x 50.8 cm x 8.89 cm