{"id":61814,"date":"2025-11-26T18:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T18:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/61814\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T18:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T18:27:08","slug":"kb-officer-recognized-for-saving-two-kayakers-in-distress-off-hobie-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/61814\/","title":{"rendered":"KB officer recognized for saving two kayakers in distress off Hobie Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<a data-no-instant=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/kbindependent.org\/give\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"a2t-link\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"KBI Email banner 600\u00d7105 \u2014 light\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/KBI-Email-banner-600x105-\u2014-light.png\" alt=\"\"   class=\"no-lazyload\" width=\"900\" height=\"158\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>For 30 years, Gordon Spitler has been serving the Key Biscayne community. So saving two kayakers who ended up in the water off Hobie Island Beach Park was just a normal day\u2019s work.<\/p>\n<p>Spitler received the agency\u2019s life-saving award for his \u201cheroic actions\u201d on Oct. 17, when the Miami-Dade Sheriff\u2019s Office reported an emergency involving an overturned kayak. Key Biscayne received a call from the Miami-Dade Sheriff\u2019s Office to respond to two distressed swimmers whose kayak had overturned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd at the time, Miami-Dade sheriff\u2019s office didn\u2019t have available vessels to respond,\u201d Police Chief Frank Sousa told the Village Council Nov. 18.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUpon locating both individuals who were in the water, he observed that they were visibly in distress and struggling to stay afloat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Operating alone, Spitler maneuvered the police vessel to rescue the swimmers. He hoisted one exhausted victim aboard, placed him in a recovery position, and simultaneously coordinated the rescue of the second swimmer, Sousa said.<\/p>\n<p>Both kayakers were transported to the Miami Seaquarium dock area for medical assistance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis quick response, courage and prompt execution of his duties directly resulted in the preservation of two lives,\u201d Sousa said.<\/p>\n<p>After receiving the award, Spitler credited the community\u2019s support. \u201cWe\u2019re a community,\u201d he said. \u201cIt starts from the residents here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/kbindependent.org\/give\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Invest in Local News for Your Town. Your Gift is tax-deductible<\/a><\/p>\n<p>  Never miss a story! Sign up for our FREE newsletter<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"m-a-box-avatar-url\" href=\"https:\/\/kbindependent.org\/author\/john-pacenti\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pacenti-1-e1682355459700-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-150x150 size-150x150\" alt=\"John Pacenti\" itemprop=\"image\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>JOHN PACENTI is a correspondent of the Key Biscayne Independent. John has worked for The Associated Press, the Palm Beach Post, Daily Business Review, and WPTV-TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For 30 years, Gordon Spitler has been serving the Key Biscayne community. So saving two kayakers who ended&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[589,21523,37300,37301,123,125,124],"class_list":{"0":"post-61814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-featured","9":"tag-frank-sousa","10":"tag-gordon-spitler","11":"tag-key-biscayne-police-department","12":"tag-miami","13":"tag-miami-headlines","14":"tag-miami-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}