On a trip to Florida last week, a 16-year-old Atlanta boy drowned after bravely acting to save four smaller children who were caught in an undercurrent.
Bryce Brooks’ life was tragically cut short as he rushed into the water to save four children who were lost in it while he was on spring break with family in Pensacola, according to his mourning family on Monday. April 10.
During the heroic rescue, Brooks went under and an older family friend named Charles Johnson II went to help the high schooler.
Sadly Charles Johnson and Bryce Brooks both died, Brooks’ stepfather Shivy Brooks said during a press conference.
“The selflessness that it takes for someone to make such a sacrifice, to do so at only the age of 16, we’re so proud as parents how our son has shown up in this moment,” Shivy Brooks said… “Let it be amplified that Atlanta developed kids that would give up their life for others that they didn’t even know.”
“Bryce is a hero,” he added. “He literally saved the lives of four kids at the expense of his own and the world should know.”
According to Shivy Brooks, who spoke to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, other people on the beach were able to rescue both the teen and the adult, and lifesaving procedures were carried out there. The two were also flown to a hospital, where doctors there declared them dead.
Bryce died from cardiac arrest, his stepfather said, according to the newspaper.
The young man leaves behind his parents and a younger brother.
Johnson leaves behind three sons and a wife, the Brooks family said.
The incident happened in a part of the Perdido Key where no lifeguards were stationed, WEAR reported.
“What I want the world to know about our son and Uncle Chuck is that one thing is for sure, they loved each other,” mother Crystal Brooks said.
