BALTIMORE (WJZ) — An Inner Harbor sales clerk is hailed a hero after saving a woman from the icy Inner Harbor waters.

Gigi Barnett has more.

“She says `I’m going to jump in the Harbor,’” said Eric Muskat.

That was the cry for help Muskat received in the middle of his workday Tuesday afternoon. It came from a customer at the Inner Harbor Urban Outfitters. Before he knew it, the 20-something woman had made good on the promise.

“I saw her picking up speed,” Muskat said. “She was going right for it.”

Muskat jumped to action and ran in after her.

“There was no thinking. I saw her face. There was a fear. I saw that her arms had stopped. I knew how cold it was and she was sinking like a rock,” he said.

By now, Muskat said he could feel the bite of the Inner Harbor water and a struggle to save her set in.

“In my head, I was thinking `Why can’t I tread like I usually can?’ There’s the extreme cold. I got a hold of her. She was going down; I pulled her up. I go down,” he said.

With the woman in the water and Muskat frantically trying to get her out, that’s when police arrived. One of them grabbed a life ring.

“The only think we did was what we were taught to do through the department…to react and make sure lives are saved,” said one of the officers.

Officers Larry Tucker and Anthony Magwood pulled the pair out and got the woman some medical help. As for Muskat, he said there’s one reason why he took the risk to save her.

“There’s somebody that loves her. I don’t know why she would have chose this but it could have been my sister,” he said.

Police are not releasing the name of the woman rescued from the Inner Harbor.