Sherae Honeycutt

GRANDVIEW, Mo — Original Post

A Grandview man is in serious condition after falling through the ice near his home this morning. His neighbor says he called police, and then worked to pull him out.

It happened Thursday at a small lake near E. 135th Street and Lakeview Drive behind a town home complex.

Chie Gunner said the last thing he expected to do Thursday was to help pull his neighbor out from under the ice. Now he hopes he’s going to be OK.

“I’ve just been praying for Steve, man,” Gunner said. “I hope Steve is good. I hope Steve makes it through.”

Steve and Gunner are neighbors, and have been for the past two years.

“The last thing I would expect is for him to go through something like this and see him like that,” Gunner said. “So it’s just been a weird, weird day.”

Gunner said he was home Thursday morning when Steve’s roommate knocked on his back door around 10:30 a.m., asking him to call police.

“I go out back. I have flip flops on,” Gunner recalled. “I saw Steve, my neighbor, in the water. I got a bat, got a cane and started breaking the ice and trying to drag Steve out — he was heavy.”

When first responders got there, Gunner said they took over the rescue.

“They moved me out of the way,” Gunner said. “They said ‘Hold on to my belt.’ So I was trying to leverage them, so they could pull Steve out.”

Grandview police say the 59-year-old man is in serious condition, and it appears he accidentally fell in while walking along the shore.

“It didn’t seem real, but my instinct was just like – help,” Gunner said. “Do what you can. Help, help, help. Try to get Steve out of the situation. If it was me, I would hope somebody would do everything they could to get me out of the water.”

Now Gunner hopes their efforts are enough for him to see Steve again.

“I’m praying that he comes over here and starts that truck up, and we can talk,” Gunner said. “He`s a good dude. Nobody deserves to lose their life. I`m sure he wanted to live and have a good day.”