Nathaniel Rhodaberger was driving his Pennsylvania American Water Co. truck along Johnston Avenue near Kittanning on May 20, checking out the system as usual before beginning the day's tasks.

Suddenly, a car ran the 36-year-old Butler Township man off the road and a state trooper soon whizzed by, hot on the heels of the errant vehicle.

Rhodaberger continued down Johnston Avenue until he saw the trooper, who had pulled over facing the wrong direction on the road, running up the Armstrong Trail along the Allegheny River.

“I asked him if he needed any help and he said, 'Yeah, I have one in the river,'” Rhodaberger recalled.

Rhodaberger abandoned his truck and headed toward the Allegheny River, where he saw the wrecked remains of the car that ran him off the road a short time earlier.

Rhodaberger said that after losing control of his car and crashing, the driver decided to escape the police by swimming across the river.

“As I was running down the hill, I could hear the guy yelling for help,” Rhodaberger said. “I don't think he took into account how cold the river was.”

Rhodaberger saw the man bobbing around in the deep water and knew he must also be injured from the violent crash.

He ran as fast as he could toward the river when he remembered he was wearing his steel-toed work boots.

“I knew that wouldn't be a good combination,” Rhodaberger said of jumping in the river in weighted footwear.

After quickly doffing the boots, he leaped into the chilly, rushing water and started swimming as hard as he could.

The suspect sank beneath the murky depths, but came up for a breath while Rhodaberger was thrashing his way out into the river.

“So, I swam out and grabbed him,” he said. “He panicked, as any drowning person would, and it took me quite a bit to convince him that I was there to help him.”

The young man instinctively climbed up Rhodaberger's body like it was a ladder, which Rhodaberger's training as a former Butler High School diving coach told him was normal.

“I knew that if they don't calm down, to submerge them in the water a little bit and they'll calm down,” Rhodaberger said. “I did, and he calmed down. I said, 'Just relax and we'll both be OK.'”

He said once the man jumped in, the current in the deep water carried him farther out and he likely realized he couldn't get back to shore.

“Once he got in there, he didn't want to die,” Rhodaberger said.

The erstwhile water crew worker then hauled the man's dead weight back to shore, which was a situation he preferred.

“His wailing and flailing was harder on me,” Rhodaberger said.

When he was 15 feet or so from shore, the trooper waded in up to his knees to help pull the man from the water.

“I told him to walk and he couldn't even walk,” Rhodaberger recalled.

The trooper handcuffed the wobbly man, who was shouting epithets at the officer.

“The cop was super nice to him,” Rhodaberger said. “He was concerned for the kid's life as much as anybody else was.”

According to court records, the suspect, Damion Pounds, 29, of Armstrong County, was charged with felony and misdemeanor counts of fleeing or attempting to elude an officer, driving under the influence, criminal mischief, two counts of recklessly endangering another person and 15 traffic-related summary offenses.

Rhodaberger said he and the trooper, Cpl. Dylan Toy, helped the injured and weakened Pounds up the hill toward the trail just as several other officers from Troop D, Kittanning, arrived on the scene.

“That was fortunate because I was about spent,” Rhodaberger said. “The other cops helped him up the hill and got him on the trail.”

The trooper who helped retrieve the young man from the water took Rhodaberger's information.

“I was like, 'I'm going to find warm clothes,'” Rhodaberger said.

He saw the ambulance passing him when he went to change clothes, and he returned to the scene after he had dried off and changed.

“The cop thanked me,” Rhodaberger said.

Troop D, Kittanning, called him in the weeks that followed, offering a public commendation for his heroics on that otherwise normal Wednesday morning.

“I told them I don't expect anything,” Rhodaberger said. “I told them I was at the right place at the right time.”

He said the suspect was young and “playing tough,” which earned him a ride to Pittsburgh in a medical helicopter that landed at a nearby park.

“I'm a godly man and I believe that everybody should live by the Golden Rule,” Rhodaberger said. “That's somebody's kid. Everyone does dumb things in their 20s.”

Rhodaberger's wife, Jenna, told the couple's older children what their father had done.

“They were all pumped up,” Rhodaberger said. “My oldest goes, 'My Dad is the kind of guy who even saves the bad guys.'”

Jenna's mother, Sherri Wood, is proud of her son-in-law, but also realizes the potential danger of the situation.

“It was like, should we slug him or hug him?” Wood said. “But he said, 'What would you do if someone needed your help?'”

Rhodaberger, who said he has always been a strong swimmer, has eschewed any kudos for the rescue and continued about his life since May 20. He has not heard from the man he rescued.

“It was a different Wednesday than what I'm used to, that's for sure,” Rhodaberger said.