Police in Pickens County, South Carolina revealed the reason why two high schoolers jumped to their death off a local bridge into a lake over the weekend.
Ryan Al-Nasser, 16, and Zakaria Chaar, 15, were reportedly dared by friends in a group chat to leap off Twelve Mile River Bridge into Lake Hartwell before they up on the dare on Saturday.
Authorities were first notified of the drowning at around 10:30 p.m. Investigators believe one of the boys made the jump while the other jumped to help him when he noticed that he was in distress. Both were swept by the current.
It took officials two days of search before finding the bodies of the Daniel High School students Monday morning.
A local boater located the deceased boys within eight feet from one another in the 15-foot-deep lake.
Chief Deputy Chuck James said peer pressure and dangerous social media challenges were to blame for the tragedy.
“TikTok trends, or you know, habits where people are trying to encourage people to jump off bridges or anything of that nature…I mean, it’s just inherently not safe,” he said.
