CASA GRANDE - It's been three days since Deputy Russell Warren helped pull four people from an irrigation canal south of here. That same morning, he also watched three others disappear into the water.

No one has seen those men since.

Crews searched the banks of the 30-mile waterway all weekend, and were still waiting for the bodies to resurface on Monday.
The deputy first thought it was a drunk driver who was erratically speeding in a pickup truck along dirt roads before dawn on Friday. Warren lost track of the truck and found it again parked on the bank.

Then he heard the screams from the water.

He pulled three men out and a 16-year-old girl out with the help of another deputy. He watched three more go under the water.

The Pinal County Sheriff's Office said they believe there were 15 people in the truck.

Nine were turned over to the Border Patrol; three were presumed to have drowned.

Three more are unaccounted for, who either drowned or escaped.

A Department of Public Safety helicopter flew above the area on Monday, and members of a search and rescue team walked the banks. Deputies on patrol drove large laps along the water, looking for any signs of the maybe three, maybe six bodies.

Pinal County usually enlists the help of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office dive team, but after surveying the area, the team said it was too dangerous for divers to search the canal.

The undercurrent created by the gates would pull divers under. Turning off the gates would cause irreparable damagecreate flooding, said Tamatha Villar, a Pinal County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman.

Instead they would wait for the bodies to resurface on their own.

It could take five days or longer if they get caught in one of the canal gates.

Warren declined to speak to reporters, but the primary account in the police report is his. Villar cited it several times.

His pursuit started when the deputy spotted the late-model red Ford F-150 kicking up dust on a dirt road and blowing through stop signs at speeds upward of 85 miles an hour.

The dust became so thick, Warren backed off to avoid running into a vehicle he couldn't see.

When it settled again, he started searching for who he thought was a drunk driver and his passenger.

Warren spotted taillights on the Houser Road, another dirt route that runs next to the canal among acres and acres of plowed fields.

When he heard the cries he ran toward the vehicle and saw five people in the water. He stood by the edge, unable to understand the words the victims were shouting. He motioned for them to come toward the bank, shining a flashlight onto his outstretched hand so they could see him.

He didn't take his eyes of the victims, trying to be certain of where they were, he wrote in his report.

He watched two people disappear, and as a third bobbed under, he decided to jump in. He took off his body armor jacket and yelled to the approaching back-up deputy to grab rope.

He jumped in the water and searched the area where he watched the third man go down. After a few seconds, he felt something on his leg, and realized it was a man. He swam under water and pulled him to the surface, and the man gasped for air.

The second deputy threw jumper cables to the victim and pulled him to the bank. Warren then helped pull the 16-year-old girl out of the water.

Further up the canal, the deputies spotted two more men who had clung to the side of the bank.

Survivors, eight Guatemalans and one Mexican, were turned over to Border Patrol.

Deputies don't know if they intentionally jumped into the water to escape, or if it was so dark and they were so disoriented that they fell into the water, Villar said.

Warren has not yet returned to work, but Villar said he has spoken with his bosses and is doing well.

"Without thought, and without reservation, and even without back-up, which he knew was on the way, he still got in the water and did what he did," Villar said.

Others are calling Warren a hero, she said. but he keeps insisting it was just his job.

"But he really is a hero," she said

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