Bay County Sheriff’s Office released body cam footage from tornado

The Bay County Sheriff’s Office has released body camera video from the first deputy to respond to last week’s tornado damage on Thomas Drive.

Sgt. Jared Turner climbed up a ladder to rescue people stranded on the second floor of an apartment building.

Turner said at the time, he didn’t think about his own safety at all.

“When I got there, that’s a two-story apartment complex, and you could see that the second floor was essentially gone and there were people starting to move around and move about,” Turner said. “And I was concerned about people and trapped on the second floor. There’s a stairwell that’s right there. That’s collapsed. It’s broken that you can’t get to the second floor. So I just had to figure out a way to get upstairs.”

One of the building’s residents had a ladder. Without hesitation, turner started climbing to the second floor.

“You can kind of feel the balcony area shift underneath your feet,” Turner said. “All these bricks are down. You’ve got hundreds or thousands of pounds worth of debris on a walkway that’s made for people.”

Turner said his main concern was the safety of others.

“There were people up there that needed help,” Turner said. “And I’d be OK falling if it came down to it, you know, ten feet or so. And if it was going to fall, they were going to fall with them on it.”

He immediately set about the task of locating residents.

“That second floor has got six or eight individual apartments on it,” Tuner said. “And so I’m just I’m gathering the people together that are there. And then I’m going to go down further to the south and check those individual units, and I’ll actually call out here in a minute. I’m asking for people to call out to me if they’re stuck or if they need help getting out. ”

Thanks to Turner’s quick actions, everyone got out of the apartment complex safely.

“The people that are there, they need help at the end of the day, and someone has to be the one to help them,” Tuner said. “And I have the knowledge, the resources, the ability to help them and get the resources they need in the area.”

Sgt. Turner credits the work of all of the first responders with everyone’s survival.