A California teen is being remembered as a hero after he drowned while trying to rescue his younger brother.
Amari Quarles, 15, died on Sunday during an outing at Sand Cove Park in Sacramento, KCRA 3 reported.
Amari went into the water to help his 13-year-old brother, Elijah, who was struggling after a football, the boys’ mother Yolanda Sashe told the outlet.
Yolanda also jumped in to help the pair, but was quickly overwhelmed by the current.
“It turned really bad very fast,” she recalled.
“It was straight thrashing you back and forth back and forth. “You cannot fight. You can’t go against the current…it drags you down.”
“I looked down at him and I looked up and I felt his hands drop,” the grieving mother added of the moment she lost her older son.
“Something came and pulled him away from me and he was gone.”
Amari’s body was found by rescue crews a few hours later, according to The Sacramento Bee.
“My son died a hero I’m so proud of what he did,” the teen’s father, James Sashe, wrote on the family’s GoFundMe page on Monday.
He added that the family had recently moved to California to be near family.
Amari was reportedly a top student at Natomas High School, which also confirmed his death in a statement on Facebook.
Capt. Justin Sylvia from the Sacramento Fire Department told KCRA 3 that the river’s cold, fast-running conditions were difficult even for the rescue squad.
“It gets very tiring when you’re out there searching for someone and trying to swim in that current,” he explained.
“You could be walking out and it could be just up to your knees — water level-wise — and you could just fall right in after that.”
“That river’s for nobody,” James added.
“If it’s hard for them, how do normal people make it?”
So far, the GoFundMe for funeral and burial costs has raised about $15,000 of its $50,000 goal.
SOURCE: New york post