MOSS POINT, Miss. – A 16-year-old from Pascagoula, Mississippi is being praised as a hero for saving the lives of three girls and a police officer after the girl’s car drove off the Interstate’s boat launch and plunged into a river.
Corion Evans, 16, told local TV station WLOX that he saw the car with three teenage girls inside enter the river after it accidentally drove off the end of a boat launch. Authorities said the vehicle traveled about 20 feet away from shore before sinking.
“They drove straight under the water. Like, only a little bit of the car was still above the water,” he told the station.
Evans and one of his friends, Karon Bradley, jumped into the water to rescue the girls and help get the girls to the roof of the car. Evans, who says he has been swimming since he was 3-years-old, also helped a Moss Point Police Officer who had responded to the scene and swam out to help.
“I turned around. I see the police officer. He’s drowning. He’s going underwater, drowning, saying, ‘Help!’” Evans said. “So, I went over there. I went and I grabbed the police officer and I’m like swimming him back.”
The officer and the three girls were taken to the hospital for treatment and are now recovering.
One of the victims named Cora Watson showed her appreciation in a post on Facebook saying he, “saved my life right before my last breath.”
“They was out there throwing up because a lot of water had got inside all of them,” Evans said. “25 yards out, so it was a lot of swimming. My legs were so tired after. Anything could’ve been in that water, though. But I wasn’t thinking about it.”
Chief Brandon Ashley released this statement to WLOX:
“The police department and I commend Mr. Evans’s bravery and selflessness he displayed by risking his own safety to help people in danger. If Mr. Evans had not assisted, it could have possibly turned out tragically instead of all occupants rescued safely.”
