Man perishes in water after rescuing five individuals from treacherous tide in South Carolina
Tragedy struck Pawleys Island, South Carolina, on Sunday afternoon, as former Georgia police officer and former Baltimore Orioles minor league player, Chase Childers, lost his life while heroically attempting to save five people caught in a rip current.
The incident unfolded at around 4:45 p.m., when a distress call was received reporting multiple swimmers in trouble. Childers, a father of three and husband, bravely entered the water to assist the family in peril. However, he too was swept away by the powerful current.
Despite the valiant efforts of the Pawleys Island Police Department, Childers was found missing shortly after the incident. A search was initiated, and at approximately 6:15 p.m., the body of the missing person was found and identified as 38-year-old Chase Childers.
The news of Childers' death has left his family "devastated" and struggling to find the right words to express their grief. In a statement shared on social media, they described his death as a "heroic act" and a "surreal, incredibly hard to grasp, and profoundly unfair" loss. The statement did not provide any further information about the family he was attempting to save.
Childers would have turned 39 next month, according to his brother-in-law. His family has asked for privacy during this difficult time and expressed their gratitude for the outpouring of support from the community.
Childers' selfless act of bravery serves as a poignant reminder of the risks some people take to save others, even in the face of danger. His legacy will undoubtedly live on in the hearts of those he left behind and in the lives of the five people he helped save.
In the heart-wrenching incident at Pawleys Island, South Carolina, the bereaved family is grappling with the loss of Chase Childers, a former police officer and minor league hockey player, as they remember his heroic attempt to save five swimmers during a rip current. Despite his background in sports, specifically hockey, and associations with the NHL through his minor league stint, this tragic event has overshadowed all other aspects of Childers' life.
