An Atlantic City woman will face charges after she allegedly threw her 1-month-old daughter into a bay and then jumped in the water.
Atlantic City Police received a call shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday after a group of fishermen standing near the Flagship Hotel on North Maine Avenue spotted a woman with a baby acting "unusual" near the inlet at Pacific Avenue.
"We saw the lady walking to the rocks with the baby," said Jose Matos. "So my nephew asked her where she was going with the baby. She didn't say anything and just kept walking."
According to the fishermen, the woman, later identified as 24-year-old Patricia Shurig, threw the infant into the bay and jumped in as well.
Two fishermen, Luis Ortiz of Egg Harbor Township, and Seth Perkins of Galloway Township, jumped into the water and managed to rescue the woman and her child.
"I said, 'I'm gonna go in for you but you can't panic and don't try to grab me,'" Ortiz said. "That's it. And I went in after her."
Thomas Bell, a retired Atlantic City firefighter who happened to be on the jetty at the time, performed CPR on the unresponsive infant and was able to revive her.
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"The lady handed me the baby," Bell said. "I did two mouth breathes and turned her over and patted her on the back. She spit up a lot of water. Then I just ran down the jetty and gave her to the EMS people."
Both Shurig and her daughter, who investigators said was born last month, were taken to AtlantiCare. Officials have not yet revealed their conditions.
Ortiz was in tears as he reflected on the rescue.
"Why?" Ortiz asked. "What was going through that lady's mind to put herself and her child in danger like that?"
Shurig will be charged with aggravated assault with additional charges pending. She will be held on $100,000 bail.
