A prestigious national hero award is being given to a 31-year-old Minnesotan who jumped into a channel near Detroit Lakes and saved his 3-year-old son only to lose his own life in the water.
Christopher F.N. Schultz, of Frazee, is among 17 people in the United States and Canada who are latest recipients of the Carnegie Medal "for risking their lives for others in life-threatening peril," the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission announced this week.
The fund, which also awards $5,500 to each person honored or their survivors, detailed Schultz's heroics during the evening of June 15, 2019.
The boy, Ashton, fell from a bridge into the 20-foot-deep channel. Schultz leapt in and held the boy above the surface while swimming toward shore 80 feet away.
As Schultz struggled, a friend jumped in and took Ashton the rest of the way.
However, Schultz went under. Police and a dive team pulled Schultz's body from the water about 45 minutes later.
The area around the channel is popular for swimming and fishing, and it draws daredevils to jump off the span, called Long Bridge, which separates Detroit Lake from Deadshot Lake.
In an interview with the Star Tribune the day after the incident, Ryan Olson described his brother as a "phenomenal swimmer." However, it was a chilly night and his clothes likely became too heavy and weighed him down, Olson said.
