Sheriff’s department honors people who helped rescue an autistic child from a freeway in March

A child runs from deputies in a screenshot from a video of his rescue Courtesy San Diego County Sheriff s Office The San Diego County Sheriff s Office is honoring several people who helped rescue an -year-old non-verbal autistic boy from a freeway in March An -year-old autistic boy who had run away from his family at a supermarket in Santee was rescued after an off-duty dispatcher spotted him alongside State Path the San Diego County Sheriff s Office communicated Monday The San Diego County Sheriff s Office wants to thank Sheriff s Dispatcher Shiloh Corbet Deputies Cody Green and Michael Moser as well as the Santee Sheriff s Station Lakeside Sheriff s Substation Sheriff s ASTREA Sheriff s Communications Center and several Good Samaritans for working together to find the missing child and getting him to safety the department disclosed in a message The child was announced missing on March after he was last seen around p m at a supermarket in the block of Mission Gorge Rd Sheriff s officers stated that he was non-verbal and had been with family before running out of the store Sheriff s Dispatcher Shiloh Corbet revealed witnessing the child running along Mast Boulevard near an on-ramp at approximately p m March before alerting the Sheriff s Communication Center law enforcement revealed Corbet notified dispatchers at the Sheriff s Communication Center about the child s whereabouts and announced that he had begun running up the on-ramp She stopped her car and began following the child who had crossed the westbound lanes of the freeway and was standing in the center divider Knowing the child s name from the information given to her by the Sheriff s Communication Center Corbert called to him to stay where he was at for his own safety the sheriff s office commented in a message The entire time she was relaying information on the phone to an on- duty sheriff s dispatcher supervisor who was directing deputies to the scene The child was located at the top of a steep embankment as deputies attempted to contact him but the child had moved away from them He began moving toward the center divider guardrail moments before the deputies ran up the embankment and attempted to stop him but the child jumped over the guardrail and began running along traffic on the freeway The deputies managed to get the child off the freeway and he was later returned safely to his family No injuries were stated The sheriff s department s free Take Me Home Initiative is intended to help find people with dementia or other cognitive issues who have wandered off or are lost More information about that initiative is available here City News Provision contributed to this assessment