On President’s Day a year ago, Anthony Alexander Jr. jumped into the frigid waters of a pond in Collingdale Park to help rescue three children who had fallen through the ice.

“They really need help,” he said at the time. “I wasn’t going to sit there and let them drown like that.”

For his actions, he received a commendation from the Collingdale mayor and recognition on the floor of the U.S. House in May by Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, writes Vinny Vella for The Philadelphia Inquirer.  

On March 25, he was to receive the Young Hero Award in Washington, D.C. from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society for his actions.

Alexander, 17, was killed Sunday when he was accidentally shot by another teenager playing with a gun inside a Drexel Hill apartment, according to Upper Darby Police.

“He was a beautiful child, and this is still not real for me,” Alexander’s stepmother, Ava, said Tuesday. “He saw the good in everybody, and he would always come to someone’s defense.”

Alexander, an Academy Park High School junior, loved football, basketball, and karate. He had planned to enlist in the Marine Corps, taking after his oldest stepsister.

Read more about Anthony Alexander in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

This is how CBS 3 reported the pond rescue in Collingdale.