MEMPHIS, Tennessee — A search for a missing man became a three-hour floodwater rescue after Memphis police officers found him being carried through Cypress Creek and eventually pulled him to shore with tree branches, according to the department and local reporting.
Watch the Memphis police rescue
The source-hosted video below contains Memphis Police Department body-camera footage from the rescue. It shows officers moving through thick vegetation, reaching the creek bank and helping pull the man from the water.
Video source: Memphis Police Department body-camera footage published by Action News 5. The department also published the rescue video and its account in an official public post. If the embedded media file does not load, use either source link.
A call for help in fast-moving water
Memphis police said Crump Station officers responded shortly before 7 p.m. on July 25 after a man was seen floating in Cypress Creek and screaming for help. Action News 5 reported that the man had already been reported missing by relatives.
The current initially moved too quickly for officers to keep pace. Police later found the man clinging to a tree branch, but responders still had no established path down to the creek.
Officer Rigoverto Rodriguez told Action News 5 that responders ran through a wooded area looking for something they could throw to the man. The officers gathered branches, extended them toward him and worked together to pull him to shore.
Officers, dispatchers and emergency personnel worked as one team
The Memphis Police Department credited Crump Station officers and Emergency Communications personnel with coordinating the rescue for more than three hours. Local coverage identified responding patrol officers including Rodriguez, Jason Smith, Cameron Campbell and Robert Sampson.
Campbell told Action News 5 that each time the officers heard the man answer their calls, it renewed their determination to reach him. The department described the outcome as the result of teamwork, quick thinking and persistence against the moving water.
Public reports reviewed by ThinBlueNews did not identify the rescued man or describe his medical condition after he reached shore. This report therefore does not speculate beyond the confirmed safe recovery.
Readers can find more source-backed lifesaving work in ThinBlueNews' police rescue news, police hero stories and latest news.
Sources, video and image attribution
- Memphis Police Department — official rescue statement and video, published July 29, 2026.
- Action News 5 — “WATCH: MPD officers rescue man from fast-moving floodwaters,” published July 29 and updated July 30, 2026.
- The Daily Memphian — “Memphis police rescue missing man from rushing waters,” published July 29, 2026.
Featured-image note: The image is a true frame from Memphis Police Department body-camera footage published by Action News 5, not a recreation or unrelated representative image. ThinBlueNews retained the source video's face blur and resized the publisher's social image for this report.
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