"Grab me! Grab me!"

Those were the last words recorded by Xie Yufeng's body camera before the 24-year-old police officer perished in the icy Banqiao River in the early hours of Jan 20, last year.

Xie, serving at Banqiao Police Station in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, was on night duty, dealing with the steady stream of routine work. Shortly after midnight, three incidents came in quick succession: a damaged motorcycle rearview mirror, a fraud complaint involving a stolen gaming account, and an argument between a designated driver and a customer.

Xie dealt with all of them. He had been at the station for just 150 days, having transferred from an elite special unit to front-line station work.

Then, sometime after 1 am, the station received another report: a man was threatening to take his own life at the Banqiao River. Xie and an auxiliary officer rushed to the scene.

The river is located about two kilometers from the station. The patrol car could only take the two officers so far; the rest of the way, they ran across a frosty dirt path, down a flight of stairs and along an embankment. On his body camera recording, Xie's breathing can be heard, quick and urgent in the freezing air.

When they reached the man, the temperature was close to 1 C. Xie stood in the cold wind and talked to him for nearly half an hour, trying to calm him down. Shortly after 2 am, the man appeared to be mollified to the point that the officers were preparing to take him back to the station.

As Xie took a position adjacent to the river, the man's emotions suddenly surged again, and in an instant, he fell into the water. "Get the life ring!" Xie shouted to his colleague as he sprinted toward the embankment.

There was no rescue equipment within reach. Without hesitation, Xie vaulted over the 1.5-meter railing, gripped the stone base with both hands and lowered his body, attempting to turn himself into a human ladder, but the man was still beyond reach.

That particular stretch of the Banqiao River is wide, swift and deep. With only seconds to act, Xie selflessly plunged into the dark, icy water to attempt a rescue, but he quickly vanished. Within minutes, a team of firefighters, medics and fellow officers pulled him ashore — but it was too late.

Jia Yang, a senior colleague at the station, still struggles to speak about what happened. "I saw Xie lying there. His face was pale, and his uniform was soaked through," Jia said."I kept calling his name, telling him to wake up, but there was no response."

On July 11, 2025, the Jiangsu provincial government officially recognized Xie as a martyr. In December, he was posthumously awarded the title of second-class model hero of the national public security system.

For those who knew him, Xie's final leap into the river did not come out of nowhere. After graduating from Jiangsu Police Institute in 2022, he joined the special police unit of the Nanjing Public Security Bureau. After three months of intensive training, he was selected for the brigade.

During his time in the special brigade, he trained at high intensity almost every day and often volunteered for extra drills. His results steadily improved. In 2024, while preparing for the national special police challenge, he repeated technical movements thousands of times, refining details and correcting weaknesses despite constant injuries.

He later made it into a provincial training camp of 100 top special police officers.

That discipline proved valuable in real operations. In a crackdown on an illegal gambling operation hidden in remote mountains, Xie served as a forward scout, flying drones at dawn for two weeks to map routes. On the day of the raid, he helped capture two suspects and recover more than 100,000 yuan ($13,800) in illegal proceeds and gambling equipment.

In August 2024, Xie volunteered for front-line work and was assigned to Banqiao Police Station, located in an urban-rural fringe area with a challenging public security environment. On average, the station handles more than 50 incidents a day.

Faced with the demands of grassroots policing, Xie threw himself into the job. Being young and unmarried, he would often ask to take extra shifts. He quickly became a versatile officer in responding to calls, handling cases and carrying out safety education.

"He had a real instinct for identifying what mattered most in a case,"Jia said. "He was naturally suited to investigative work."

In one assault case, Xie noticed the victim had shown symptoms such as headache and vomiting before being sent to the hospital.

He quickly inferred that the man might have suffered a brain hemorrhage, meaning the case could involve criminal liability rather than just being a public order offense.

After nearly 30 hours of tracking, he identified key surveillance points among more than 300 apartment blocks in the suspect's neighborhood and helped make the arrest. During his time at the station, he participated in more than 80 cases, mediated over 50 disputes and helped more than 160 members of the public.

Xie was his parents' only child. They live in a small apartment in an old residential building. His books and notebooks have been carefully stored away.

"His father and I both miss him, but neither of us dares bring him up," Xie's mother said quietly."When I learned that he had been named a martyr, my first reaction was pride. But more than that, I felt sorrow and heartache."

Before he died, Xie typed a note in his phone: "Once I get through this busy period, go to the mall and buy mom a new freezer."

The family's last meal together was on Jan 18, last year. Xie had not been home for some time because of work, so his parents traveled to the station to see him. He was busy until noon, then took them for a simple meal near the station.

With just one week left before Spring Festival, the family had been looking forward to returning to their hometown in Zhejiang province for the holiday, but they never got that chance.