MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A man has died and another is recovering after they were pulled from the water near Haulover Park.
This was a frightening ordeal as six friends were hanging out in the water one minute and the next they are struggling, getting pulled by a rip current.
Andrea Gaybor was with five other friends, two women and three men.
They took a boat out to the Haulover Sandbar and jumped out to swim. Gaybor said within minutes things took a drastic turn.
“He said I need help,” Gabor said. “We got down from the boat and the current just took him, we all went to save him and it was taking all of us.”
Gaybor said one of the other men on the boat, identified as 50-year-old Marco Colon, tried his hardest to save his drowning friend.
It proved to be too much for him, too, until some Good Samaritans stepped in.
“Some guy pulled me out of the water, all I know is that we were screaming, because we couldn’t see the other one because he was under the water,” Gaybor said.
Two Good Samaritans were quick to help in the water emergency until authorities arrived.
“We saw the people screaming so we swam over to the vessel,” said Good Samaritan Walton Goncalves. “The one gentleman was already on the bottom, so we dove down and pulled him back up, but he was already unconscious.”
The victims were rushed to Aventura Hospital & Medical Center by first responders, where one was later pronounced dead, police said.
Colon, the surviving victim, is in stable condition and expected to be released from the hospital on Tuesday, his sister told Local 10.
Authorities have not released the identity of the victim who did not survive.