Suffolk County police officers rescued a pair of boaters whose canoe capsized Wednesday in Lake Ronkonkoma, police said.
Two Fourth Precinct officers responded to the lake incident around 5:20 p.m., after 911 callers reported two men in distress, police said.
The first officer on the scene grabbed a life ring and a rope, and darted toward the lake. A second officer tied the end of the rope around his waist and entered the lake, police said.
The officers swam approximately 150 feet to where the two men were clinging to their overturned canoe, police said. Each officer grabbed a victim. Then they pulled them back toward the shore until it was shallow enough to walk, police said.
The canoers were identified as 49-year-old Alehandro Avalos of Hempstead and 51-year-old Carlos Criollo of Baldwin. They were transported to Stony Brook University Hospital, where they were treated for exposure.
The officers were treated at the scene for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
