Lift Bridge rescue call was false alarm, authorities say – Twin Cities

Several agencies responded to a water-rescue call in Stillwater on Thursday afternoon after the Stillwater Lift Bridge tender called authorities to report that a group of young women thought they had seen a young man go into the St. Croix River and not surface.

Law enforcement officers searched the river in boats using sonar scanners, and divers from the Washington County Fire Rescue Dive Team searched the bottom of the river, but no one was found, said Washington County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Kevin Jadwinski.

The initial report, which came in around 4:40 p.m., said the young man was thought to have gone into the river from the undercarriage of the pedestrian bridge, just east of the bridge tender’s building, Jadwinski said.

“Boats with scanning technology searched the river for about two hours and did not see anything,” he said. “Divers were in the river searching the bottoms of the river for 30 to 40 minutes, and they didn’t find anything.”

In addition, crews from the Minnesota Department of Transportation scanned footage from cameras located at the top of the bridge and the bottom of the bridge “going back 30 minutes prior to the call coming in and never located anyone falling or jumping off the bridge,” Jadwinski said.

Law enforcement cleared the scene at 6:36 p.m., he said.

“We always take these types of calls seriously,” Jadwinski said. “We are going to throw all the resources that we have at it if it means saving someone’s life until we can deem that no one is in the water.”