Three DeKalb County sanitation workers were honored Tuesday for helping save a young woman’s life.
According to officials, ZahMontay Cherry, Richard Jones and Peter Williams were working their regular route near Lithonia when, on Oct. 4, they dumped a curbside roll cart into their truck. They then “noticed someone’s hand protruding from the hopper.”
The hand belonged to a 16-year-old girl — who was still alive.
The sanitation workers quickly called 911 and “assured that the teenager received the care she needed,” officials said.
In a Twitter post celebrating the sanitation workers, the DeKalb County Police Department said the girl had “fallen asleep” in the garbage can, but no further details about the nature of the incident were available.
“Not only were these gentlemen focused on serving DeKalb County with excellence,” Commissioner Mereda Davis Johnson said. “They also served with awareness.”
Davis Johnson and her colleagues honored the men at the start of Tuesday’s commission meeting, the board’s first in-person gathering since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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