CHESAPEAKE, Va. -- A veteran member of the Police Department's dive team died Tuesday after struggling to breathe while submerged during a training exercise at Oak Grove Lake Park.
Officer Timothy Schock was taking part in search-and-rescue training around 11:45 a.m. when he had difficulty breathing, according to a statement from Police Chief Kelvin Wright.
When Schock surfaced, he told his team partner, who was with him during the training, that he couldn't breathe, Wright wrote. Schock's partner immediately tried to give him his own respirator, "but under the stress and duress of the situation, Officer Schock pushed away the apparatus and went back under water," according to Wright.
Divers on shore helped get Schock back to the surface and onto land, where they performed CPR, according to Wright. Emergency crews from the Fire Department continued lifesaving efforts.
The officer was taken to Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Wright said the circumstances of Schock's death are under investigation.
Schock worked for the department for 16 years, including about eight on the dive team, police spokeswoman Kelly O'Sullivan said. The officer, whose age was not available, had a teenage son, she said.
Schock is the third Chesapeake police officer to die in the line of duty in the past six years. In October 2005, Officer Michael Saffran, 45, was fatally shot while responding to a bank robbery. In January 2008, Detective Jarrod Shivers, 34, was killed during an attempt to serve a search warrant.
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