In a solemn yet honoring gesture, the Oakland County Sheriff's Office has conferred a posthumous citizen citation upon Marsalis Quintin Carter, a 20-year-old Detroit native who tragically drowned while saving his coworkers on Taylor Lake. On July 20, while on a break from their moving job, Carter sprung into the lake to aid a coworker floundering with a pool noodle, escorting them back to safety, according to ClickOnDetroit.
The incident, which took place in a private lake in Rose Township, took a grim turn when another colleague of Carter's faced difficulties in the water, prompting him to dive back in. After successfully helping a second person, he succumbed to the water himself and was later found by divers more than 13 exhausting hours later, and, 300 feet from shore.
Sheriff Michael Bouchard honored the brave young man's mother, Daileen Carter, by presenting the citation on Wednesday at the sheriff’s office headquarters. In a moment that acknowledged the profound loss yet celebrated the selfless spirit of her son, the gesture was meant to provide a semblance of comfort and recognition for Carter’s ultimate sacrifice. “Giving him a posthumous life-saving award may give him some meaning for his sacrifice and recognition that their young son was a hero,” Bouchard stated, as per CBS News Detroit.
Sheriff Bouchard, as cited by WWJ Newsradio 950, expressed his pride in Carter's actions on that tragic day. “I wanted to take a moment to recognize the selfless and heroic act of her son who died saving the life of someone else,” he said, indicating even though it might not lessen the family's grief, perhaps it brings purpose to the severance they now endure. The sheriff's office used this occasion to renew their calls for boaters to ensure ample life-saving equipment is readily available, especially for those not adept at swimming.
