A 31-year-old Sikh farmer, who died while trying to save an eight-year-old girl in California in 2020, has been bestowed with the Carnegie Hero Award, North America’s highest honor for civilian heroism.
Manjit Singh from Fresno died while trying to save Samantha Cruz Pedro from the Kings River in Reedley on August 5, 2020.
Pedro struggled to swim as she was separated from a group of children playing in the river and the swift current carried her downstream. Singh then entered the river to save the child, despite not knowing how to swim. He unwrapped his turban and tried to use it as a lifeline as he went into the water up to his neck to try to help the little girl.
Shortly after this, he submerged and onlookers lost sight of him in the chaos.
A man located Pedro and took her to first responders on the bank. She was taken to a hospital where she died six days later.
Singh was recovered downstream and was brought to the bank unresponsive. All attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.
Each of the recipients or their survivors will receive a financial grant, the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission announed in a release late last month. The Carnegie Medal is given throughout the US and Canada to those who enter extreme danger while saving or attempting to save the lives of others.
So far, the Carnegie Medal has been awarded to 10,371 individuals since the inception of the Pittsburgh-based Fund in 1904.