A teenager is earning high praise after jumping into a river and rescuing three girls and a police officer.
Corion Evans, 16, jumped into the Pascagoula River in Mississippi last week to help save three teenage girls as their car sank. In the process, he also helped a police officer who began to struggle during the rescue.
The girls’ car drove off the Interstate 10 boat launch into the river, about 20 feet from shore.
“They drove straight under the water,” Evans told WLOX. “Like, only a little bit of the car was still above the water.”
Evans tossed his shoes, shirt, and phone before jumping in to help.
“I was just like, ‘I can’t let none of these folks die. They need to get out the water.’ So I just started getting them,” Evans added. “I wasn’t even thinking about nothing else.”
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Evans’s friend, Karon Bradley, also reportedly helped the girls reach the top of their vehicle.
Moss Point Police Officer Gary Mercer swam out to help but began to struggle.
“I turned around. I see the police officer,” Evans said. “He’s drowning. He’s going underwater, drowning, saying, ‘Help!’ So I went over there. I went, and I grabbed the police officer, and I’m, like, swimming him back until I feel myself I can walk.”
The Moss Point Police Department praised Evans for his heroic efforts in a statement.
“The police department and I commend Mr. Evans’s bravery and selflessness he displayed by risking his own safety to help people in danger,” the statement said. “If Mr. Evans had not assisted, it could have possibly turned out tragically instead of all occupants rescued safely.”
Evans’s mother also expressed pride in her son, saying he “wasn’t just thinking about himself. He was trying to really get all those people out the water. I’m glad nothing happened to him while he was trying to save other people’s lives.”
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Mercer and the three girls were taken to the hospital and are said to be recovering.
