Three Culpeper teens dove into a lake Monday and saved a family after their kayaks capsized, police said.
The family — who a caller told police consisted of two adults and a young child who couldn’t swim — was wearing life jackets and were uninjured.
Andrew Tuggle, 15, Jackson Castro, 17, and Gavin Cain, 17, are members of the Eastern View High School golf team, and were on the Culpeper Country Club course for team tryouts when they saw the capsized kayaks on the nearby Lake Culpeper around 3:35 p.m.
Their teammates called 911 and alerted coaching staff while Tuggle, Castro and Cain ran to the lake and swam to the family, bringing them to shore and then going back for the kayaks.
“The instinct and courage these young men showed to jump into action and save lives is heroic,” said their golf coach, Patrick Thornhill. “I could not be prouder of them.”
The area where it happened made the rescue particularly difficult, police said, describing it as a “steep, overgrown hillside with a boulder-strewn shoreline between December Ct and the water intake of the Lake Culpeper Dam.”
But police said by the time officers and emergency services arrived at the lake, the family was already safely on shore because of the teens’ efforts.
“These three young men saw someone in danger and acted immediately, without hesitation, at potentially great personal risk to themselves,” said Culpeper police Chief Chris Settle. “That kind of courage and quick thinking is what saved three lives on Monday.”
Police said they confirmed there was no one else in the water using drone footage and translation services.
from Local – NBC4 Washington https://ift.tt/h9AfTRy
0 Comments