A Massachusetts father died a hero on Wednesday after he saved the life of his son from a dangerous rip current, authorities said.
44-year-old Gary Simard, a father of four, was on a trip to Salisbury Beach in Northern Massachusetts with his family when he heard his son screaming for help.
The father jumped into the waters and rescued his child with the help of two bystanders but he drowned.
His body was recovered 20 minutes later after he was pulled 100 yards away from the shore, the witnesses said.
“We swam out to the kid. We were over our heads and it was too much. It was too much,” one said describing waves up to six feet high.
“The kid was going further and then the dad was running out,” a rescuer recalled.
“Then the dad was also yelling ‘Help’. I had no choice I had to run out there; the kid grabbed my hand. We started swimming, and I don’t know. It was just like survival mode.”
Simard’s father said that the two Good Samaritans had to make a decision: “To save my grandson or my son.”
“He made the right decision because he almost didn’t make it.”
